What we learned from Dell and HP's latest financial results
Dell reports 'best third quarter in history' as HP reveals full year gains
Dell and HP had both posted quarterly results overnight.
Dell's overall sales were up 21 per cent to $28.4bn in its fiscal Q3, while competitor HP also saw its revenue rise, by 9.3 per cent, to $16.7bn for its fourth quarter.
HP's final quarter results means the vendor's revenue for the full year rose 12.1 per cent to $63.5bn.
CRN breaks down both sets of results:
Dell
Alongside a 21 per cent sales increase, Dell also saw non-GAAP operating income hit a third quarter record of $2.9bn, up five per cent year-on-year.
Dell said its income and sales rises were "driven by growth in all business units, customer segments and geographies, as well as broad strength across commercial PCs, servers and storage".
Meanwhile, non-GAAP diluted earnings per share stood at $2.37, a 17 per cent increase.
Among the best performers for Dell was its commercial sales, which rose by an "unprecedented" 40 per cent to hit $12.3bn.
Revenue for the whole of its Client Solutions Group was up 35 per cent to a record $16.5bn, while its operating income was also a record $1.1bn, up 14 per cent.
Consumer revenue was a record $4bn, up 21 per cent, which was "driven by strong growth in notebooks as well as premium and gaming desktops", co-COO Jeff Clarke said.
Dell said it achieved the "highest year-over-year PC share gain in Dell's history for calendar third quarter" with shipments up 26.6 per cent.
Infrastructure Solutions Group revenue for the third quarter was $8.4bn, up five per cent. Within that, storage revenue was $3.9bn, up one per cent, while servers and networking revenue was $4.5bn, up nine percent.
It gave the group an operating income of $892m, or approximately 10.6 per cent of Infrastructure Solutions Group revenue.
"We're three quarters into what will prove to be a historic year for Dell," co-COO Chuck Whitten said.
"Demand for our solutions remains strong as global economic recovery and widespread digital transformation reset IT demand to higher levels.
"Against that backdrop and despite the difficult supply environment, we again delivered great performance in Q3, with strong growth in all three business units, all regions and broad strength across our commercial PC, server and notably, most of our storage portfolio."
HP
HP's fourth quarter also saw non-GAAP net earnings up 29 per cent to $1.1bn, contributing to a 43 per cent increase for the same figure over the whole year to $4.6bn.
Fiscal 2021 non-GAAP diluted net EPS was $3.79, which HP said was above the previously provided outlook of $3.69 to $3.75 per share, with that figure standing at $0.94 for the fourth quarter.
However, the company saw declines in some of its hardware sales during the latest quarter including consumer PCs, with net revenue down three per cent.
Printing net revenue was $4.9bn, up one per cent year-over-year , but total hardware units for the division were down 26 per cent with consumer units down 28 per cent and commercial units down 12 per cent.
Supplies net revenue was also down by two per cent, with HP claiming that ongoing supply constraints are continuing to have an impact on the business.
"For Personal Systems, we expect the component shortages, as well as manufacturing port and transit disruptions will continue to constrain revenue due to the ongoing pandemic in many parts of the world," chief "financial officer Marie Myers said.
"In Print, we expect similar, but more acute challenges, particularly with regard to factory disruptions and component shortages. We expect these challenges across PS and Print to persist at least through the first half of 2022."
The vendor still saw its Personal Systems net revenue rise 13 per cent in the quarter to $11.8bn, up 13 per cent year-over-year, helped by a big increase of 25 per cent in commercial PCs net revenue.
Notebook units were down 12 per cent but desktop units rose by two per cent.
"Our Q4 and full year performance shows our company is on a strong foot and hitting its stride," CEO Enrique Lores said.
"Long-term secular trends such as hybrid play for our competitive thing. Our leadership across our markets and the innovation agenda we are diving are enabling us to turn these trends into tailwinds.
"We are making organic and inorganic investments to drive profitable growth. We are accelerating our transformation, building new digital capabilities, while also reducing structural costs and driving efficiencies.
"The progress we are making against our priorities is creating a more growth-oriented portfolio."