Dell. Still Sucking.

Dell (DELL) just reported after the close. The company earned 30 cents a share, one-third less than last year’s fourth quarter. That was a penny ahead of Wall Street’s forecast, but six cents a share came from not paying employee bonuses.
Just look at Dell’s trailing earnings-per-share. This is all you need to know.

If you’re new to investing, do you see how the blue line goes down at the end? That’s not good. Try and avoid those.
The New York Times notes:

Historically, Dell has had operating margins that were higher than any computer maker except Apple because Dell sells computers directly to its customers and does not have to share profit with retailers. But over the last year, those margins have slipped to 5.5 percent from more than 8.2 percent.

Here’s a look at Dell’s operating marging:

Think of it this way: Dell used to be able to sell $100 worth of effort for around $113. Today, it goes for $106.
The NYT:

Revenue fell 5.1 percent, to $14.4 billion, from $15.18 billion a year earlier. The last time revenue declined at Dell was in 2001, in the recession that followed the technology boom.

Here’s a look at trailing four-quarter sales:

I wish I could give you more details but I can’t. The company hasn’t filed a quarterly statement in nine months. (That’s also not good.) No blance sheet. No comparisons with last quarter. Nothing. Oh, did I mention the SEC investigation? (That’s really not good.)
I’m sure some of this will be revised soon, but here are the results for the last ten years:

Quarter…..Sales….Oper. Income…..EPS
1-97………$2,588………$198………..$0.0675
2-97………$2,814………$296………..$0.0725
3-97………$3,188………$346………..$0.085
4-97………$3,737………$397………..$0.10
1-98………$3,920………$429………..$0.11
2-98………$4,331………$483………..$0.12
3-98………$4,818………$539………..$0.14
4-98………$5,173………$595………..$0.15
1-99………$5,537………$600………..$0.16
2-99………$6,142………$694………..$0.19
3-99………$6,784………$650………..$0.18
4-99………$6,801………$513………..$0.16
1-00………$7,280………$625………..$0.19
2-00………$7,670………$736………..$0.22
3-00………$8,264………$818………..$0.25
4-00………$8,674………$589………..$0.18
1-01………$8,028………$588………..$0.17
2-01………$7,611………$545………..$0.16
3-01………$7,468………$544………..$0.16
4-01………$8,061………$594………..$0.17
1-02………$8,066………$590………..$0.17
2-02………$8,459………$677………..$0.19
3-02………$9,144………$758………..$0.21
4-02………$9,735………$809………..$0.23
1-03………$9,532………$811………..$0.23
2-03………$9,778………$840………..$0.24
3-03………$10,622…….$912………..$0.26
4-03………$11,512…….$981………..$0.29
1-04………$11,540…….$966………..$0.28
2-04………$11,706…….$1,006……..$0.31
3-04………$12,502…….$1,089……..$0.33
4-04………$13,457…….$1,187……..$0.37
1-05………$13,386…….$1,174……..$0.37
2-05………$13,428…….$1,173……..$0.38
3-05………$13,911…….$944………..$0.39
4-05………$15,183…….$1,246……..$0.43
1-06………$14,216…….$949………..$0.33
2-06………$14,094…….$605………..$0.22
3-06………$14,383…….$824………..$0.30
4-06………$14,402…….$801………..$0.30

Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on March 1st, 2007 at 9:52 pm

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