Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) announced this week that it would move up the date of its latest earnings report to today after the markets closed, and analysts at Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) released a preview report. Of course Dell has been buffeted lately by buyout concerns, first as founder Michael Dell made his offer, and then as a handful of other offers have come in and some even withdrawn. The newest offer that’s still on the table is the one from activist investor Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management.
So why would the struggling PC maker suddenly move up the date of its earnings report? It’s hard to say, but many industry watchers believe it’s because the company will miss expectations by a wide margin. And taking that argument even further, the company’s board could be using a weak earnings report to bolster its push for shareholders to believe the original go-private bid from Michael Dell is the best option for the company.
Earnings And Revenue Expectations For Dell
Today’s report will cover the company’s first fiscal quarter, which ended in April. A source cited by the Wall Street Journal did say that the struggling PC maker’s earnings would be below expectations. The Journal reported that earnings per share are expected to be 20 cents on revenue of $14 billion.
However, a consensus of approximately 20 analysts polled by Bloomberg’s BusinessWeek indicates a different consensus of 35 cents per share on revenue of $13.5 billion. Goldman Sachs analysts say they estimated revenue of $13.13 billion and earnings per share of 35 cents.
Dell’s New Workstations For Data Centers
Today Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) has also made a major announcement concerning its new workstation, which is meant to move traditional workstations into the data center, according to PC World. The new workstation is the Precision R7610, and it’s designed like a rack server, although it uses Intel’s Xeon processors to support up to four graphics cards and host virtual machines, enabling apps to be run on a variety of different devices, including PCs or mobile devices.
Dell hopes that the new workstation will help enterprises centralize their data processing for tasks that are data intensive, like multimedia and engineering, and then render them to devices that are connected.
Shares of Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) remain quiet so far today, falling just 15 percent since opening bell. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) continues to remain not rated on shares of Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL).
