Shares of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) are up $2.48, or almost 12%, at $23.71, continuing gains of the after-hours session, following a better-than-expected fiscal Q2 profit report.

CEO Meg Whitman said parts of the business were seeing growth, such as its networking equipment. But she was frank about challenges ahead, such as making up for lost services revenue next year.

The stock got one upgrade this morning, that I can see, from Underperform to Hold, by Peter Misek with Jefferies & Co. Misek writes that “despite our skepticism” HP’s strategy for its printer business is “not dead on arrival,” as print supplies sales rose 1.5%.

“Printing accounts for 35% of HP’s total profit and due to the lower margin profile of hardware, supplies likely account for 40% of HP’s total profits,” he writes. “Managing the ink profits may be the key to HP’s success.”

Following HP’s report last night, Lenovo (0992HK) reported fiscal Q4 revenue of $7.8 billion, up 4%, year over year, missing consensus of $7.93 billion, but met the average expectation for a 1-cent profit per share. The shares rose 18 cents, or 2.5%, to close at $7.36 in Hong Kong trading.

CEO Yang Yuanqing called the results strong, and remarked that “Not only were we the fastest growing among all major PC players, with record market share, revenue and profitability, more importantly, our smartphone and tablet businesses saw dramatic growth.”

“In fact, smartphone shipments were 3.7 times greater than last year globally and we are now number two in the China smartphone market.”

The Financial Times’ s Kathrin Hille this morning writes that Yuanqing expects the next couple of quarters to be difficult, as the PC market continues to struggle, but things should get better after that as use of Microsoft‘s (MSFT)Windows 8 picks up.

Shares of ChannelAdvisor (ECOM), a maker of hosted software that lets company sell products through multiple online marketplaces, including eBay(EBAY) and Amazon.com (AMZN), are just beginning trading, under ticker “ECOM.” The stock is up $5.14, or 37%, at $19.14 after pricing at $14, the high end of a $12 to $14 range.

ChannelAdvisor made $54 million in revenue last year, according to its S1 filing,and had a net loss of $4.23 per share. It made $15 million in the first quarter, and delivered a net loss of $2.10 per share.

Shares of Cisco Systems (CSCO) get a thumbs up this morning fromCitigroup’s Kevin Dennean, who reiterates a Buy rating and a $26 price target, writing that he sees a case to be made for $30, based on upside in the venerable routing and switching business, writing that “Taking a detailed look at Cisco’s router and switch businesses, the direct relationship between revenue growth and OECD growth is clear with both segments exhibiting correlation >0.75. An improving macro backdrop bodes well for revenue acceleration in Cisco’s router and switch segments.”

Cisco stock is up 5 cents at $23.49.

Seabreeze Partners’s Doug Kass this morning tells followers in a missive he sent out that “Apple (AAPL) is ripe for a buy,” noting that while the stock “remains a trading sardine not an eating (or investing) sardine,” nevertheless, over the next six to 12 months, “downside is $400 to $410 a share and upside is likely $500 to $525 a share — though depending on the timing and context of new product release, this could be higher.”

“While still elevated vis-à-vis my expectations, consensus sales and earnings expectations have been reduced dramatically and have now grown more realistic.”

Apple shares are up $1.64, or 0.4%, at $442.99.

http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/?mod=BOL_hpp_blog_tt