Dell
Dell Technologies stock hit an all-time high on Friday, surging roughly 30% after its Thursday earnings beat.
Shares changed hands at about $123 before trading closed for the week, and investors celebrated the company's AI-fueled business developments and ramp-up in demand. The stock has climbed 64% year-to-date.
For the quarter ending February 2, the company posted $23.32 billion in revenue, which was a decline of 11% but still above the expected $22.15 billion. It reported adjusted earnings per share of $2.20, beating consensus forecasts for $1.72.
"Our strong AI-optimized server momentum continues, with orders increasing nearly 40% sequentially and backlog nearly doubling," Jeff Clarke, chief operating officer and vice chairman, said in a statement.
The company also announced a 20% increase in its annual cash dividend to $1.78 a share.
Executives nodded to artificial intelligence as a key driver for the last quarter, and they expect the technology to fuel a strong year ahead.
"We've just started to touch the AI opportunities ahead of us, and we believe Dell is uniquely positioned with our broad portfolio to help customers build GenAI solutions that meet performance, cost and security requirements," Clarke said.
Dell's post-earnings stock surge follows Nvidia's huge gain last week after earnings. The chip maker saw its shares jump 16% the day after it published its blowout quarterly results, driving short sellers to suffer roughly $3 billion in paper losses betting the stock would go lower that day, according to data from S3 partners.
