Earnings Preview: Dell Q3 revenue forecasted to be down 2%-5% sequentially

Dell (DELL) is expected to report Q3 earnings after the market close on Thursday, November 15, with a conference call scheduled for 5:00 pm ET. The consensus estimate is 40c for EPS and $13.90B for revenue, according to First Call. On its last earnings call, Dell said it expects continued solid growth in Enterprise Solutions, Services and Software and also a challenging end-user computer environment in the second half of the year. Given the uncertain economic environment, competitive dynamics and soft Consumer business, Dell guided for Q3 revenue to be down 2%-5% from Q2 levels. In addition, the company modified its full-year earnings outlook to at least $1.70 per share on a non-GAAP basis, which includes a 2c-3c dilutive impact from its pending acquisition of Quest Software. Although Dell is trying to turn itself into a services and software company similar to IBM (IBM), Dell is still heavily reliant on PC sales for a hefty percentage of revenue. With expectations and the bar set extraordinarily low, Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said he thinks Dell could rally near-term, as results may be better than anticipated. "However, given low expectations, we expect results to be in-line or better. For its outlook, it is a similar story with low expectations. Because of this, we would not be surprised to see a near-term rally in Dell shares though our longer-term concerns remain," Wu wrote in a note. He rated Dell shares Neutral. Dell has not done very well earnings-wise recently. The last three earnings releases were major disappointments, and the stock has reacted accordingly. Analysts project very slow growth over the next few years, anticipating earning of $1.73 in 2013, growing slightly to $1.75 in 2014.