Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ) Earnings Watch: Will 3D Printing Help Tech Giant Rebound From Declining PC Sales? [VIDEO]

After the closing bell on Tuesday, Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) is expected to post fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of 75 cents on revenue of $27.88 billion, according to analysts polled by Reuters. That compares with a loss of $3.49 a share on revenue of $29.96 billion a year earlier.

Investors will be listening in on how the company plans to enter the 3D printing market after HP CEO Meg Whitman told attendees at a tech conference in October the company will be unveiling a 3D printer by mid-2014.

“Well it’s important to hear with regards to HP from Whitman that the company’s going to start getting further involved in potentially the cloud server in terms of what are they doing to adapt to this new technology,” said Mark Newton, chief technical analyst at Greywolf Execution Partners. “They’ve also really missed the boat to a large extent with regards to 3D printers. So for HP, investors want to know are you addressing this, and how are you going to move forward and try to get involved with that as well?”

In August, HP reported fiscal third-quarter earnings of 86 cents a share on revenue of $27.23 billion, as personal computer revenue fell 11 percent from a year earlier, showing a slowdown in PC sales remained an issue for the company.

HP also saw some key management changes ahead of the company’s last quarterly earnings report, after CEO Meg Whitman announced two high-level executives, Enterprise Group Chief Dave Donatelli and Marketing Chief Marty Homlish, were reassigned into different positions within the company.

“The stock has had a very good year. It’s almost doubled since early this year,” added Newton. “It was trading around $12, $13 in the beginning of 2013, now it’s up near $25. So they certainly need to show some signs, not only of hitting earnings. I think people expect sales could be weak again because of serve markets just dying, but are they making the right steps to move ahead to adapt to this cloud server and also to get involved with 3D printing?”

In addition, HP raised its outlook in August and expects adjusted full-year earnings of $3.53 a share to $3.57 a share.

"I remain confident that we are making progress in our turnaround,” said HP President and Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman in the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings statement. “We are already seeing significant improvement in our operations, we are successfully rebuilding our balance sheet, our cost structure is more closely aligned with our revenue and we have reignited innovation at HP, with a focus on the customer."

Hewlett-Packard is scheduled to host a conference call at 5:00 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, November 26 to discuss its fourth-quarter earnings results with shareholders.

On Tuesday, shares of Hewlett-Packard edged down 0.36 to $25.23 in afternoon trading.