Dell's Q4 posts revenue gains as PCs, servers, networking show strength

Dell Technologies logged fourth quarter revenue growth across its various units led by its client solutions group and commercial PCs with infrastructure getting a boost from servers and networking sales.

The company reported a fourth quarter operating loss of $321 million on revenue of $21.9 billion, up 9 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP operating income was $2.1 billion.

Dell Technologies is currently pondering strategic options including going public or merging with VMware, a unit that represents the company growth and cash engine.

For fiscal 2018, Dell reported an operating loss of $3.3 billion on revenue of $78.7 billion. Non-GAAP operating income was $6.9 billion.

The company said it has paid down $10 billion of debt since acquiring EMC. Dell ended the quarter with $52.7 billion in total debt including subsidiaries.

Jeff Clarke, vice chairman of products and operations at Dell, said the company saw strength in commercial PCs, servers, and networking. All-flash storage and hyperconverged systems also fared well. Storage revenue in the fourth quarter was down 11 percent.

Dell’s client solutions group had revenue of $10.6 billion, up 8 percent. Infrastructure solutions had revenue of $8.8 billion, up 5 percent.

For the year ahead, Dell said it plans to grow faster than the market and focus on storage and client revenue, pay down debt, bolster profits in the infrastructure group, and help customers navigate digital transformation.