Dell's quarterly profit more than quadruples on strong PC demand

[BENGALURU] Laptop maker Dell Technologies Inc said on Tuesday profit surged more than four-fold in the third quarter, as demand for its personal computers and servers was boosted by businesses increasingly adopting hybrid work models.

With the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting in-person activity across many industries, millions of consumers have started to work and learn from home resulting in the need for better and faster computers.

Revenue at Dell's client solutions unit, home to its hardware devices, rose 35% in the quarter on an operating income of US$1.1 billion.

Dell benefits from having a diverse portfolio of software and hardware revenue streams, and it is now trying to tap into high-growth markets, such as edge computing, cloud and telecoms, that have gained traction since the pandemic began.

Revenue from its infrastructure solutions group, which includes the data center business, was up 5 per cent at US$8.4 billion in the quarter.

Total revenue jumped 21 per cent to US$28.39 billion, compared with analysts' average estimate of US$26.82 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

The company's net income surged to US$3.89 billion, or US$4.87 per share, in the third quarter ended Oct 29, from US$881 million, or US$1.08 per share, a year earlier.

Meanwhile, rival PC-maker HP Inc also reported a quarterly profit that more than quadrupled to US$3.09 billion, and said its personal systems unit posted a 13 per cent rise in revenue.

Dell's freshly spun off cloud computing unit VMware posted a 10 per cent rise in revenue during the quarter.

VMWare completed its spinout from Dell, which owned 81 per cent of the software firm, to become a separate publicly traded company on Nov 1.

REUTERS