Dell's Q4 a mixed bag with pockets of enterprise strength
Dell delivered fourth quarter results that fell just short of expectations. Dell's sales and outlook for fiscal 2013 were above expectations.
Dell's fourth quarter revenue topped estimates, but earnings were light. The company reported fourth quarter earnings of $764 million, or 43 cents a share, on revenue of $16.03 billion. Non-GAAP earnings were 51 cents a share.
Wall Street expected Dell to report fourth quarter earnings of 52 cents a share on revenue of $15.96 billion.
For the year, Dell reported earnings of $3.49 billion, or $1.88 a share, on revenue of $62.07 billion.
For fiscal 2013, the company said that non-GAAP earnings will top the $2.13 a share mark posted in fiscal 2012.
Wall Street was looking for fiscal 2013 earnings of $2.05. Revenue in the first quarter will fall 7 percent from the fourth quarter due to seasonality.
By the numbers:
- Dell's large enterprise unit delivered fourth quarter sales of $4.9 billion, up 5 percent. Operating income for the quarter was $461 million.
- Public sector revenue in the fourth quarter was $3.9 billion, down 1 percent from a year ago. Operating income was $327 million. Dell said it was seeing weakness in U.S. and Europe government spending.
- SMB revenue was up 6 percent from a year ago to $4 billion in the fourth quarter. Operating income was $412 million.
- Dell's consumer revenue in the fourth quarter fell 2 percent to $3.2 billion. Operating income was $39 million.
- Asia-Pacific and Japan revenue was up 10 percent from a year ago. Europe Middle East and Africa saw fourth quarter revenue jump 8 percent from a year ago. Americas revenue fell 3 percent.
- Dell said its services revenue in the fourth quarter was $2.2 billion, up 12 percent from a year ago. Services backlog was up 11 percent to $15.5 billion.
- Mobility revenue was $4.87 billion in the fourth quarter, up 3 percent from a year ago. Servers and networking revenue was $2.2 billion in the fourth quarter, up 6 percent from a year ago. Storage revenue fell 13 percent due to the end of a partnership with EMC.
