Dell reported yet another solid quarter after the close on Thursday.
Dell’s third-quarter earnings of 33 cents a share met analysts’ estimates, while revenues of $12.5 billion came in slightly below $12.53 billion forecasts. For the fourth quarter, Dell forecast earnings of 36 cents on sales of $13.5 billion, again in line with estimates.
The company reported strength in server, notebook and printer sales.
“The PC business is a lot stronger than some people would have you believe,” CFO James Schneider told CNBC, adding that the company “continues to steal market share” from rivals.
Overall shipments rose 22%, fueled by a 35% gain in notebook shipments and 27% growth in global server and storage revenues. U.S. business sales were up 20%, and gross margins of 18.5% were better than expected.
Shares of Dell rose 2% after hours on top of a 1% gain during the day.
Also after the close, Agilent warned and BEA
beat estimates.
Stocks surged during the day as crude oil fell and the dollar stabilized.
The Nasdaq surged 26 to 2061, the S&P 500 rose 10 to 1173, and the Dow gained 84 to 10,469. Volume declined to 1.4 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.78 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 24-8 on the NYSE, and 20-10 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 75% on the NYSE, and 75% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 361-15 on the NYSE, and 204-27 on the Nasdaq.
Oracle and PeopleSoft
both after PeopleSoft rejected Oracle’s “final” offer, which will expire on Nov. 19 unless a majority of PSFT shares are tendered.
Intel rose on news of a new CEO.
AMD surged 7.5% on a Merrill Lynch upgrade.
Nortel and WebMethods
tumbled on continued accounting concerns.
Ctrip.com fell 7% on its results.
