Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) is scheduled to discuss its fiscal first-quarter 2010 results today in a conference call featuring CEO Michael S. Dell and CFO Brian T. Gladden at 5:00 PM ET. You can catch the live webcast of the call on the company's website.
For the quarter in which the leading supplier of PCs and related hardware saw a change to its board of directors and new distributor relationships, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the Round Rock, Tex.-based company to report earnings of $0.23 per share, down 39.5% from the same period of the previous year. Revenue for the quarter is expected to have fallen 21.1% to $12.7 billion. Dell's earnings have beat estimates in three of the past four quarters.
For the current quarter, analysts expect to see a $0.24 per share profit on revenue of $12.9 billion. Concerns going forward include whether the sales slump has bottomed, whether Dell's belt-tightening has been enough, and whether it can gain market share in China.
Analysts, on average, expect Dell's long-term EPS growth rate to be 11.6%, which is marginally better than that of rival Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ). Dell's forward P/E ratio estimate is 10.0. The First Call consensus recommendation remains to hold DELL. The share price is about 8.5% higher than at the beginning of the year, but it is about 48.2% lower than it was a year ago.
See BloggingStocks' Dell coverage for more information about the company.
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