After a drop in demand, Dell exceeded earnings estimates in the first quarter, indicating a brighter future for PC makers. However, due to conservative IT investment, their revenue prediction for the current quarter is lower than planned.
Chuck Whitten, Dell’s co-chief operating officer, credited the company’s outstanding success to three factors: maintaining pricing discipline, lowering operational expenditures, and having a robust supply chain. Dell managed to reduce its total operating expenditures by 6% in the first quarter, to $3.57 billion.
Despite a 20% drop in revenue to $20.92 billion, Dell outperformed analysts’ projections of $20.27 billion. The revenue drop was mostly caused by a drop in demand for PCs and laptops following an initial rise in purchases during the pandemic-driven work-from-home trend. As a result, inventories accumulated amid an uncertain economic future.
Dell’s PC division fell 23% in revenue, while its infrastructure section fell 18%. Dell’s profits per share above expectations, coming in at $1.31 vs 86 cents. However, sales for the second quarter is likely to range between $20.2 billion and $21.2 billion, falling shy of the consensus estimate of $21.2 billion.
The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.