Aaron Rakers, an enterprise hardware analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, said Dell’s weakness in consumer PCs “is definitely a disappointment, but the long-term transformation of this company continues to play out.” Nevertheless, he maintains a price target for the stock of $17.
The impending Windows 8 release from Microsoft “should help, but that looks to be more of a 2013 story, and a reflection of the company’s weak guide over the next couple of quarters,” Rakers said.
In a head-to-head comparison with Dell’s competitorHewlett-Packard, Rakers said HP had the better balance sheet fundamentals. Mizuho’s Lamba, however, said that because HP has “historically overpaid for some of acquisitions,” it could be vulnerable to a few write-downs in the future.
—By CNBC.com’s Javier David
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Additional Views: Two Tech Favorites Going Nowhere Fast
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Disclosures:
Neither analyst owns Dell or HP, but both Mizuho and Stifel, Nicolaus make markets in the stocks of Dell and Hewlett-Packard.
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