HP's CEO needs to convince wary Wall Street

Hewlett-Packard Co must convince Wall Street it can reverse a string of disappointing results, weather a drought in innovation spending and deliver growth again when it reports revenues on Thursday.

The company's chief executive

The company's chief executive, Leo Apotheker, who came on board with hopes of reinvigorating a sprawling business empire he blames previous management for stifling, has presided over two quarters when HP was forced to shave 2011 sales forecasts.

Investors fled hardware shares afterwards Dell Inc this week slashed its fiscal 2012 revenue outlook, afraid that spending by corporations and government will crumble as economic growth slows. HP fell about 4 percent on Wednesday, during Dell plunged more than 10 percent.

Wall Street had braced for a tepid year as governments worldwide grapple with ballooning debt, high unemployment in the developed world discourages consumers, and corporations tighten their belts in the face of uncertainty .

Apotheker wants to boost revenues by pushing into cloud computing, which involves helping companies revamp their data centers so they can transfer computing tasks online.

That is becoming increasingly crucial as HP's foray into the consumer arena with its TouchPad tablet may already be losing steam. The device has received dismal reviews and has but to make a dent in Apple Inc's iPad market share.

Analysts are expecting HP to post revenues of $1.09 per share on revenue of $31.2 billion and gross margins of just pursuant to this agreement 24 percent in the fiscal third quarter ended July, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Among its largest divisions, Wall Street foresees flat growth at its personal devices arm, and single-digit growth in the services business it is trying to overhaul and jump-start.