NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Hewlett-Packard, the world's top manufacturer of personal computers, reported fiscal first quarter results that were in line with the guidance the company gave last week.

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More importantly, the company raised sales guidance for the fiscal second quarter, another sign of improving demand in the tech sector. During a conference call with analysts, HP chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina said that the company was seeing momentum in the market for tech products and services.

HP rival Dell reported strong fourth quarter earnings last week and reaffirmed its sales and earnings guidance for the first quarter. In addition, the company gave an upbeat outlook about corporate tech spending. That optimism was echoed by chip equipment firm Applied Materials, which reported its latest results on Wednesday.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP reported net income of $936 million, or 30 cents a share, compared to $721 million or 24 cents a share a year ago. Excluding charges, the company posted a profit of $1.4 billion, or 35 cents a share, in line with the consensus estimate of Wall Street analysts.

HP reported sales of $19.5 billion, up 9 percent from a year ago, matching the target the company gave last week. Analysts were predicting sales of $19.4 billion.

For the fiscal second quarter, HP said it expected sales to be in a range of $19.2 billion to $19.6 billion, ahead of the consensus estimate of about $19.1 billion. The company also said it expects earnings, excluding charges, to be about 34 cents a share. That's in line with analysts' estimates.

The company also confirmed that it should meet the consensus earnings per share estimate of $1.43, excluding charges, for fiscal 2004, which ends in October. That would be an increase of 23 percent from fiscal 2003.

Shares of HP (HPQ: Research, Estimates) slipped nearly 2 percent on the news after hours. But the stock gained 35 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $23.86 in regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday. HP shares are up about 4 percent year to date and are less than 10 percent off its 52-week high.

The company has a been favorite whipping boy of Wall Street since its merger with Compaq was announced in 2001. But for the second consecutive quarter, HP posted an operating profit in all four of its major divisions.

"HP delivered a solid quarter," said Fiorina in a written statement. "In a seasonally weak period we demonstrated HP's earnings potential with our most balanced profit performance since the merger."

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Some might disagree that the period was seasonally weak, however, since the quarter, which ended in January, included the key holiday shopping season. HP's personal systems unit, which includes personal computers and handhelds, reported a 20 percent increase in sales from a year ago. In fact, with sales of $6.2 billion, the division had a higher amount of sales than HP's printing division, usually the largest in terms of revenues.

Operating profits in the personal systems division surged 88 percent to $62 million, a good sign since there were some concerns that price wars in the PC industry with competitors Dell and Gateway could take a toll on the company's profits. To be sure, operating profit margins in this unit are still relatively small at just 1 percent. HP retook the global market share lead in PCs from Dell during the fourth quarter.

The company's enterprise systems unit, which includes storage, servers and software, also posted an operating profit and a year-over-year increase in sales. The division reported operating income of $108 million, compared to a loss of $82 million a year earlier. Sales grew 5 percent from a year ago but were down slightly sequentially.

HP's most profitable business -- printing and imaging -- also reported year-over-year gains in sales and operating income. Sales rose 5.6 percent to $5.9 billion while operating profits grew 6.3 percent. The division's operating margins came in at 16.4 percent.

The services division, however, saw a steep decline in operating profits despite an uptick in revenue. Operating profits dipped 24 percent, to $258 million, while sales increased 6.4 percent to $3.2 billion. In the earnings release, Fiorina cited increasing pricing pressures and continued weakness in the consulting industry.

Still, Steve Paspal, senior analyst with Sovereign Asset Management, which owns HP, said that the company needed to show continued momentum in its PC and enterprise divisions, and it appears that HP delivered.

What's more, the overall 2Q sales guidance that HP gave implies that sales would be up in a range of 7 percent to 9 percent from a year ago. Investors have been waiting for HP to start showing sustained increases in revenue.

"A lot of earnings consistency of late has come from cost cutting," said Paspal. "What we want to see is consistent growth on the top line."

However, HP, which generated 57 percent of its total revenue from outside the Americas, also continued to benefit from a relatively weak dollar. The company said that total sales grew only 1 percent from a year ago, after adjusting for currency fluctuations.