For Dell, it might not be all about sales. Wall Street seems more concerned that the PC maker shows encouraging signs of performance management when it discusses its fourth-quarter earnings.
Datamation previews Dell’s upcoming earnings, which for the first time will account for the performance of the recently acquired Perot Systems.
Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) announces fourth-quarter results after the close of trading on Thursday, though investors’ interest is likely to be more focused on the No. 3 PC maker’s operating expenses and management than on its revenues and earnings.
For some time, Dell has been focused on removing operational costs from its structure, and as of its last earnings call has saved about $4 billion as a result. But a company can only cut so much away to profitability before it needs to start selling products again.
A consensus survey of Wall St. analysts puts Dell’s fiscal fourth quarter of 2010, which concluded at the end of January, at $13.85 billion in revenue and earnings per share (EPS) of $0.27. That would translate to 3.1 percent year-over-year sales growth and slight decline in EPS from $0.29 in 2009.
UBS Investment Research recently issued a research note stating it expects market share loss for Dell, which has been losing ground to Acer on the consumer side and HP on the business side, might be offset somewhat by a stronger-than-anticipated market. UBS analyst Maynard Um puts revenue at $13.7 billion and EPS at $0.28.