Dell gets a mild lift as results show strong PC sales growth

Dell Technologies announces record financial results for its fiscal 2022 third quarter. The company generated record revenue of $28.4 billion, up 21%, driven by growth in all business units, customer segments and geographies, as well as broad strength across commercial PCs, servers and storage. Operating income was a third quarter record of $1.3 billion, a 19% increase over the same period the prior year, and non-GAAP operating income was a third quarter record of $2.9 billion, up 5%. Net income was $3.9 billion, non-GAAP net income was $2.0 billion and adjusted EBITDA was $3.4 billion. Net cash from operating activities was $3.3 billion. Diluted earnings per share was $4.87, up 351% and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share was $2.37, up 17%.

Third quarter fiscal 2022 financial results

Information about Dell Technologies’ use of non-GAAP financial information is provided under “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below. All comparisons in this press release are year-over-year unless otherwise noted.

Dell Technologies ended the quarter with remaining performance obligations of $47 billion, up 26%, deferred revenue of $31 billion, and cash and investments of $24.2 billion. The company has paid down a total of $15.9 billion of debt year-to-date and received an Investment Grade corporate family rating from all three of the major credit rating agencies.

Operating segments summary
Client Solutions Group revenue for the third quarter was up 35% to a record $16.5 billion. Operating income was a third quarter record of $1.1 billion, up 14%, and 6.9% of Client Solutions Group revenue. Commercial revenue was a record $12.3 billion, up an unprecedented 40%, and consumer revenue was also a record $4.3 billion, up 21%.

Key highlights:

• Continued growth in high-value segments, including commercial PCs, high-end consumer and gaming – which will drive long-term profitable share gains.
• Achieved highest year-over-year PC share gain in Dell’s history for calendar third quarter, with shipments up 26.6% and global PC share up 3.0 points to 17.4%.
• Announced new Latitude Rugged notebooks – including the industry’s smallest 5G-capable 13″ fully-rugged laptop.
• Timed to the 25th anniversary of Alienware – released the redesigned Alienware Aurora, the pinnacle of gaming desktop experiences. With a special focus on airflow and thermals, the open-air design provides better accessibility and improved performance – enriching the gaming experience in every possible way.

Infrastructure solutions group revenue for the third quarter was $8.4 billion, up 5% and the third consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year revenue growth, as customers accelerate IT investments. Storage revenue was $3.9 billion, up 1%. Servers and networking revenue was $4.5 billion, up 9% for a fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. Operating income was $892 million or approximately 10.6% of Infrastructure Solutions Group revenue. Customer investments in IT infrastructure and digital transformation will continue to drive strong demand for compute and storage and create future growth opportunities for new innovations in multi-cloud, telecom and 5G.

Key highlights:

• Introduced updates to the network-attached storage (NAS) portfolio, including new Dell EMC PowerScale systems and software enhancements, all focused on providing customers with the flexible and secure consumption and management of unstructured data.
• Launched the industry’s first end-to-end NVMe/TCP solution, featuring SmartFabric Storage Software, which provides the intelligence for automated storage connectivity at scale.
• Announced edge innovations across the portfolio to help organizations simplify deployments and capture more value from data generated and processed outside the traditional data center and public cloud.
• Introduced new telecom software, solutions and services to help communications service providers (CSPs) accelerate their open, cloud-native network deployments and create new revenue opportunities at the edge.
• Announced APEX Cloud Services with VMware Cloud, which gives organizations the ability to move workloads across multiple cloud environments and scale resources quickly with predictable pricing and transparent costs.

VMware revenue was $3.2 billion for the third quarter, up 10% driven by broad-based strength across a diverse product portfolio. Operating income for the quarter was $837 million, or 26.3% of VMware revenue.

Executive quotes:

• “We continue to deliver strong results, with more than $13 billion in cash flow from operations on a trailing-twelve-month basis,” said Tom Sweet, chief financial officer, Dell Technologies. “The digital trends are tailwinds for our business, and along with our strategy and financial flexibility, lead us to be optimistic about our long-term growth prospects.”
• “Technology is more essential today than ever before, and we are clearly winning in our core, keeping us at the center of customers’ IT and digital agendas,” said Jeff Clarke, vice chairman and co-chief operating officer, Dell Technologies. “Our product, global operations and sales teams did an outstanding job this quarter as we shipped a record number of products and delivered record revenue of $28.4 billion.”
• “We’re three quarters into what will prove to be a historic year for Dell, and we are just beginning to write the next chapter of the Dell Technologies story,” said Chuck Whitten, co-chief operating officer, Dell Technologies. “We are uniquely positioned in the data era, with durable advantages and market-leading positions. Our strategy is focused on growing our core business and in adjacent multi-billion-dollar markets including multi-cloud, edge, telecom and as-a-Service.”

CT Bureau