Hewlett-Packard Co., the largest computer-maker of the world has forecast second-quarter profit and sales that were below analysts' predictions as a drag in consumer spending restricted growth.

Excluding some costs, profit of the firm will be one dollar and nineteen cents to one dollar and twenty one cents per share in this quarter, HP said Tuesday.

Sales will be in the tune of $31.4 billion to $31.6 billion. That is comparable with profit of one dollar and twenty six cents and revenue of $32.6 billion, the average estimates given by analysts that were surveyed by Bloomberg.

Consumers are not spending that much on computing products, which kept the Chief Executive Officer Léo Apotheker from surpassing analysts' predictions in his 1Q at the helm. HP, which gets more than thirty three percent of its sales from Europe, Africa and the Middle East, was also affected by a slow recovery there.

Investors are waiting for Apotheker, to present his strategy at an event for reporters and analysts in San Francisco which will be on March 14. Former CEO of HP, Mark Hurd, who had quit in August, had reduced costs to increase the company’s profitability and stock price during his five-year tenure.

HP declined in extended trading. The shares, which went up by fifteen percent in this year, closed at forty eight dollars and twenty three cents in New York Stock Exchange composite trading Tuesday.

The first-quarter profit of the fiscal rose to $2.6 billion from two and a quarter billion dollars or ninety three dents per share from a year earlier. Sales went up to $32.3 billion in the period, which ended Jan. 31. Analysts in the Bloomberg survey were indicating a profit of $1.29 and sales of thirty three billion dollars on average.