Dell Stock Drops as Soft Q3 Profit Projection Offsets Strong AI Demand

Dell Technologies (DELL) shares sank in early trading Friday, a day after it projected soft current-quarter profit.

The Round Rock, Texas-based maker of personal computers and servers sees third-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.45 at the midpoint, below the $2.49 expected by analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha.

Dell shares are falling around 10% in early trading Friday, leading declines on the S&P 500. They are up around 5% so far this year.

Dell’s forecasts for Q3 revenue and full-year profit and revenue came in above Visible Alpha consensus. Its second-quarter adjusted EPS of $2.32 on revenue that surged 19% year-over-year to a record $29.78 billion also topped estimates, which the company attributed to strong AI demand.

“We’ve now shipped $10 billion of AI solutions in the first half of FY26, surpassing all shipments in FY25. This helped deliver another record revenue quarter in our Servers and Networking business, which grew 69%,” COO Jeff Clarke said. “Demand for our AI solutions continues to be exceptional, and we’re raising our AI server shipment guidance for FY26 to $20 billion” from $15 billion-plus.

Citi analysts said in a note Friday that Dell’s Q2 PC segment sales were below consensus forecasts “by 3% or roughly $357.0 million,” and that it “likely lost share in PCs.” It added that the increase in its AI server shipment guidance is good news for Nvidia (NVDA), which makes up 88% of its sales, and Micron Technology (MU), at 17%. “Dell expects the traditional server business to grow in the 2nd half but below their prior expectations from the beginning of the year,” the analysts wrote. 

UPDATE—This article has been updated with the latest share price information.