Let G be a nonabelian finite p-group of order pm. A long-standing conjecture asserts that G admits a noninner automorphism of order p. In this paper we prove the validity of the conjecture if exp (G)=pm−2. We also show that if G is a finite p-group of maximal class, then G has at least p(p−1) noninner automorphisms of order p which fix Φ(G) elementwise.