HEWLETT-PACKARD’S share price fell in early trading yesterday, three days after chief executive Mark Hurd resigned following an investigation into his relationship with a contractor.

HP shares, which had doubled since Mr Hurd took the helm five years ago and implemented drastic cost cuts, were trading at about $42.58 yesterday morning, down 8 per cent from their NYSE close of $46.30 on Friday.

They had fallen 10 per cent in extended trade on Friday, after HP said an investigation found that Mr Hurd had falsified expense reports to conceal a relationship with a female contractor, who was identified as sometime-actress Jodie Fisher on Sunday.

Some analysts said the shares looked cheap after the sell-off, but investors were not entirely convinced, given uncertainty over whether Mr Hurd’s successor could lead HP against competitors like IBM, Apple and Cisco Systems.

“Many senior executives fail,” said Louis Miscioscia, an analyst at Collins Stewart, “so you don’t know whether someone is going to be good in the seat until they’re in the seat for six to 12, sometimes 24 months . . . So that’s the risk.”

HP is looking for chief executive candidates inside and outside the company. Chief financial officer Cathie Lesjak will run the company in the interim and will not run for chief executive, HP says.

HP shares were attractively valued before Friday’s shocking news and looked more so after the decline, Mr Miscioscia said.

“The good thing is that the company is in much better shape than it’s been in the last 10 years,” he said. “It is no longer a turnaround situation as it was when he took over.”

Investment banking firm Stifel Nicolaus maintained a “buy” rating on HP shares, but lowered their target price to $53 from $62 and removed them from the Stifel Select list.

The shares were likely to trade sideways until a chief executive successor was named, said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Aaron Rakers.

In the meantime, he added, investors were left to question whether there are “further issues amiss within HP,” as well as who the next chief executive would be and how the company’s other executives would deal with the change.

HP’s most direct competitor is IBM, which, like HP, sells hardware, software and technology services to the world’s biggest companies. HP also faces competition from Cisco, which has begun selling servers to large corporate data centres. Apple is also emerging as a rival, with HP preparing to enter both the tablet and the smartphone market following its acquisition of Palm. – (Reuters)