Dell beats fourth-quarter revenue estimates signaling PC market recovery

The Dell logo is seen on an item for sale in a store in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 24, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo

(Reuters) – Dell Technologies beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter revenue on Thursday, helped by the artificial intelligence boom and a recovery in the personal computer (PC) market.

The PC market is showing signs of green shoots following a slowdown in revenue that began in 2022 from the peaks touched during the pandemic, as the boom in work-from-home demand for PCs and electronics faded.

Dell is also a beneficiary of rising demand for its AI-servers that are equipped with chip designer Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs), which helps in meeting the demands of high-performance computing.

“Our strong AI-optimized server momentum continues, with orders increasing nearly 40% sequentially and backlog nearly doubling, exiting our fiscal year at $2.9 billion,” Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke said in a statement.

Last week, Lenovo Group reported stronger-than-expected earnings in the third quarter, with revenue returning to growth after five quarters of decline.

The global PC market returned to 3% growth in the fourth quarter of 2023 and is now poised for a stronger recovery in 2024, data research firm Canalys said in January.

Dell posted revenue of $22.32 billion for the quarter ended Feb. 2, slightly ahead of analysts’ average estimates of $22.16 billion, according to LSEG data.

Revenue at the infrastructure solutions group, which includes its storage, software and server offerings, fell about 6% to $9.33 billion, while that of the client solutions group – home to PCs – fell nearly 12% to $11.72 billion.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)