Dell Technologies late Thursday beat expectations for its fiscal second quarter but offered mixed guidance for the current period. Dell stock dropped in extended trading.
The Round Rock, Texas-based computer maker earned an adjusted $2.32 a share on sales of $29.78 billion in the quarter ended Aug. 1. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected Dell to earn $2.29 a share on sales of $29.02 billion. On a year-over-year basis, Dell's sales and earnings each rose 19%.
For the current quarter, its fiscal Q3, Dell forecast adjusted earnings of $2.45 a share on sales of $27 billion. Wall Street was modeling earnings of $2.55 a share on sales of $26.4 billion. In the same quarter last year, Dell earned $2.15 a share on sales of $24.37 billion.
"We've now shipped $10 billion of AI solutions in the first half of FY26, surpassing all shipments in FY25," Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke said in a news release. "This helped deliver another record revenue quarter in our Servers and Networking business, which grew 69%."
He added, "Demand for our AI solutions continues to be exceptional, and we're raising our AI server shipment guidance for FY26 to $20 billion."
In fiscal Q2, Dell's Infrastructure Solutions Group generated sales of $16.8 billion, up 44% year over year.
Revenue in the company's Client Solutions Group rose 1% to $12.5 billion.
Dell Stock Falls After Report
Meanwhile, Dell raised its targets for the full fiscal year. It now expects to earn an adjusted $9.55 a share on sales of $107 billion. Three months ago, it forecast fiscal 2026 adjusted earnings of $9.40 a share on sales of $103 billion. Analysts had been modeling earnings of $9.40 a share on sales of $105 billion. Last year, Dell earned an adjusted $8.14 a share on sales of $95.6 billion.
In after-hours trading on the stock market today, Dell stock fell more than 4% to 128.30. During the regular session, Dell stock rose 1.2% to close at 134.05.
HP Rises On Sales Beat
Late Wednesday, industry peer HP reported in-line earnings on better-than-expected sales for its fiscal third quarter ended July 31. HP stock rose 4.6% to close at 28.35 on Thursday.
The PC and printer maker earned an adjusted 75 cents a share, down 11% year over year, on sales of $13.93 billion, up 3%, in fiscal Q3. Analysts had been looking for earnings of 75 cents a share on sales of $13.69 billion. Personal computer sales got a boost in the period from adoption of AI PCs and upgrades to Microsoft's Windows 11 operating system, the company said.
Dell stock ranks fourth out of 16 stocks in IBD's computer hardware industry group, according to IBD Stock Checkup. HP ranks No. 7 in the group.
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