China's Lenovo Group on Thursday posted a better-than-expected rise of 512 percent in fourth-quarter profit, as more consumers working and studying from home powered demand for the world's biggest maker of personal computers.

Profit for the quarter ended March 31 jumped to $260 million, above an average estimate of $204.7 million from seven analysts, according to Refinitiv data.

Revenue rose 48 percent to $15.63 billion from $10.58 billion a year earlier. Analysts expected a revenue of $14.33 billion. Pandemic-fuelled buying of laptops, televisions, and personal gadgets have propped up sales of various electronic companies including rival Samsung Electronics.

Lenovo said in a statement its board recommended a final dividend of 24 Hong Kong cents per share for the year ended March 31. In 2020, it paid 21.5 cents per share. According to research firm Gartner, worldwide shipments of personal computers rose nearly a third in the March quarter, following a weak 2020 base, the fastest year-over-year growth since Gartner began tracking the PC market two decades ago. Lenovo strengthened its lead in PCs with a quarter of share of the market, ahead of HP with 21.4 percent and Dell with 16.5 percent, Gartner said. ©Reuters