Dell Disappoints With Q3 Revenue As PC Market Slowly Gets Back To Its Feet

On Thursday, Dell Technologies DELL reported its third quarter results, with revenue coming short of estimates and overshadowing its earnings beat as hardware and software market are recovering in a slower than anticipated pace from its post-Covid crash. The market was expecting more after Intel Corporation INTC and Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD gave a glimmer of hope that recovery is picking up just in head of the holidays. Its results mirror PC market trends its rival HP Inc HPQ reflected when it guided for a weaker-than-expected first-quarter profit due to a slow PC market recovery and weak demand in China. Upon the report, Dell shares went down 4% after the bell.

Third Quarter Highlights

Revenue for the quarter ended on November 3rd, Dell reported sequentially flat revenue that dropped 12% YoY to $22.25 billion, with earnings of $1.01 billion. Operating income amounted to nearly $1.5 million while non-GAAP operating income amounted to $2 billion. With a profit of $1.36 per share, adjusted earnings amounted to $1.88 per share.

Dell’s client solutions group that is home to its consumer and enterprise PC business, reported revenue dropped 11% YoY to $12.28 billion. However, servers and networking business revenue reported a sequential revenue rise of 9% sequentially on the back of fueled interest in genAI.

PC Market Recovery Is Picking Up, But Slowly...

Last month, research firm Gartner reported that Dell posted a six consecutive decline in PC shipments from July to September due to weak spending by its essential enterprise customer base that resulted from a sluggish economy. According to the research firm, global third quarter PC shipments declined 9% with Dell ranking third, behind Lenovo Group Limited LNVGY and HP, but coming ahead of Apple AAPL. Another research firm, Canalys, provided an optimistic outlook of PC market thriving on the back of AI boost. Canalys expects the adoption of AI-powered PCs to accelerate from 2025 onwards with these revolutionary devices making about 60% of all PCs shipped by 2027. Over the next two weeks, AMD and Intel will be unveiling their new AI offerings and developments that threaten to trip the AI chip powerhouse, Nvidia Corporation NVDA. Although Nvidia powered the generative AI revolution with its power chips, this market is still in its infancy and AMD and Intel are working hard to catch up. Although Nvidia posted a stellar quarter, even the AI chip leader was cautious with its sales guidance that missed lofty numbers that are being whispered throughout Wall Street. With AMD and Intel striking back, even Nvidia could trip. Although it is certain that AI will shape the next PC era, only time will show exactly how will that look like and if the hype is justified. 

DISCLAIMER: This content is for informational purposes only. It is not intended as investing advice.