Dell Technologies posted one of the most talked-about earnings prints in recent memory Thursday, sending its stock up roughly 32% on Friday — on pace for its best single day since going public again in 2018.
The numbers were hard to ignore. Q1 revenue jumped nearly 88% year over year, driven by a flood of AI-related server demand. AI server revenue alone hit $16.1 billion — a 757% increase from the same quarter last year.
Adjusted EPS came in at $4.86, well above the $2.94 consensus estimate.
Ben Reitzes, head of technology research at Melius, put it bluntly: “They beat every line in the model — so this wasn’t just AI, it was great execution.”
The beat forced a wave of analyst revisions Friday morning.
Susquehanna made the boldest move, upgrading Dell to Positive from Neutral and raising its price target to $700 from $138. The firm cited AI server scaling without margin erosion, an expanding inferencing opportunity, and better-than-expected execution in the Client Solutions Group.
J.P. Morgan kept its Overweight rating and lifted its target to $500 from $280. Analyst Samik Chatterjee noted that Dell’s updated FY27 outlook was raised “materially once again,” with demand tracking well above expectations and pipeline visibility extending further into the year.
Dell’s updated full-year AI revenue outlook of $60 billion implies a 144% year-over-year increase, according to J.P. Morgan.
Citi kept its Buy rating and raised its target to $475 from $290, calling the quarter an “exceptional beat and raise” with demand continuing to exceed supply.
Morgan Stanley, which carries an Underweight rating and a $170 price target, was candid in its note Friday.
“We got this one wrong, and our model/PT are under review,” analysts led by Erik Woodring wrote. They called it “one of the most impressive quarters we’ve seen in our time covering Hardware.”
Traditional servers grew nearly 100% year over year. Storage posted its fastest growth in 12 quarters. PC operating margins hit near-record highs. Full-year guidance was raised by close to 40%.
Dell also landed a Pentagon contract worth $9.7 billion this week to supply software to the U.S. military.
Even before Thursday’s print, Dell’s stock had already nearly tripled over the past year.
J.P. Morgan does flag that a $10 billion half-over-half revenue moderation is baked into the second-half outlook — but notes that constraint appears to be supply-driven rather than demand-driven, and expects further upward revisions as supply visibility improves.
Dell raised its full-year revenue outlook to reflect roughly 50% year-over-year growth.
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