Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's No. 2 maker of personal computers, said on Wednesday quarterly profit surged from a year earlier, when it had a tax charge for repatriating foreign earnings.

Net income for the third fiscal quarter ended July 31 rose to $1.38 billion, or 48 cents per share, from $73 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier, when HP had a charge of almost $1 billion, mainly in taxes, for returning income earned abroad. Revenue advanced to $21.9 billion from $20.8 billion.

HP, based in Palo Alto, California, reported earnings per share of 52 cents per share before special items, exceeding analysts' average forecast of 48 cents, as compiled by Reuters Estimates. Analysts had pegged revenue at $21.8 billion.

Led by Chief Executive Mark Hurd, HP has been gaining market share at the expense of rival Dell Inc., the No. 1 PC maker, as it cuts costs while chipping away at Dell's traditional price advantage. Hurd is eliminating 15,300 jobs, or 10 percent of the workforce, to save $1.9 billion annually.

HP shares trade at about 16 times estimated 2006 earnings per share, compared with a multiple of 19 at Dell.

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