By Tae Kim

Dell Technologies stock rose after the company posted better-than-expected earnings late Thursday.

"Our prospects for AI are strong," Dell Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke said in the news release.

For its fiscal fourth quarter ended in January, the company reported revenue of $23.9 billion, up 7% versus the prior year, but below the Wall Street consensus of $24.6 billion, according to FactSet. Adjusted earnings came in at $2.68 per share, which is above the $2.52 analysts' consensus estimate.

Guidance was mixed. For the current quarter, Dell forecast a revenue range of $22.5 billion to $23.5 billion, which is below analysts' expectations of $23.6 billion.

Dell shares rose 4% initially following the release in after-hours trading.

This is breaking news. Read a preview of Dell earnings below and check back for more analysis soon.

Dell Technologies will reports its latest earnings results after the market close Thursday. Investors are hoping the company will give a positive outlook for artificial intelligence server sales for the rest of this year.

Wall Street expects Dell to report January quarter revenue of $24.6 billion with adjusted earnings of $2.52 a share. Analysts' estimates for the current quarter's revenue is $23.6 billion with per-share earnings of $1.78.

Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring reaffirmed his Overweight rating on Dell stock, but lowered his price target to $128 from $154.

The analyst said he expected near-term mixed guidance from Dell management: "Reducing ests [estimates] ahead of earnings with a more conservative outlook on AI servers given supply chain bottlenecks."

Woodring expects stronger results from Dell's AI business later in the year as production capacity improves. "AI Server demand checks have remained unwaveringly strong," he wrote.

The company is a leading provider of computers and servers for artificial intelligence. Coreweave, a cloud-computing company that runs on graphics-processing units, and Elon Musk's xAI both are customers of Dell hardware for their AI infrastructure buildouts.

Dell stock has gained 24% over the past 12 months.

Write to Tae Kim at tae.kim@barrons.com

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February 27, 2025 16:28 ET (21:28 GMT)

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