Tech Stocks from Briefing.com

Dell (DELL) reported first quarter earnings of $0.21 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.14 worse than the Capital IQ consensus of $0.35, while revenues fell 2.4% year/year to $14.07 billion versus the $13.49 billion consensus. Given the company's announcement on Feb. 5 of a definitive merger agreement to take Dell private, the co is not providing an outlook for Q2. Enterprise Solutions Group revenue was $3.1 billion, a 10% increase. Operating income for the quarter was $136 million, a 71% increase. Dell server and networking revenue increased 16% as the company gained share in the calendar first quarter. Dell networking continued to deliver strong growth, with a 24% revenue increase, including a 46% growth in the company's Force10 business. Dell storage revenue declined 10%. Dell Services revenue grew 2% to $2.1 billion driven by an 11% increase in revenue for infrastructure, cloud and security services. Support and deployment revenue increased 2% and applications and business process services declined 15%. Operating income was $370 million, a 10% increase. Dell Software revenue was $295 million, resulting in an operating loss. Dell enhanced its software capabilities during the quarter, investing in additional sales capability and research and development. Consistent with the company's business strategy when it acquired Quest Software, this business is on track to be accretive to earnings in the first quarter of fiscal year 2015. End User Computing revenue was $8.9 billion in the quarter, a 9% decrease. Operating income for the quarter was $224 million, a 65% decrease. Dell desktop and thin-client revenue declined 2%, mobility revenue declined 16%, and software from third parties and peripherals revenue declined 6%.

Aruba Networks (ARUN) reported third quarter earnings of $0.11 per share, $0.01 worse than the Capital IQ consensus of $0.12, while revenues rose 11.5% year/year to $147.1 million versus the $146.17 million consensus.

Brocade (BRCD) reported second quarter earnings of $0.17 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ consensus Estimate of $0.15, while revenues fell 0.9% year/year to $538.78 million versus the $539.62 million consensus. "Our storage area networking revenues did not meet our original expectations for Q2 due to short-term slowing in the storage market and execution challenges at certain of our large OEM partners. I believe the longer-term market opportunity for our SAN products continues to be favorable, supported by the fact that our Gen 5 (16 Gbps) Fibre Channel products exceeded 50% of our shipments of directors and switches in the quarter," said Lloyd Carney, CEO of Brocade. "Also in Q2, Brocade experienced strong year-over-year growth of our IP networking product sales highlighted by the performances of our Ethernet fabric, routing, and refreshed campus LAN portfolios. We were also able to increase profitability in a challenging environment."

Autodesk (ADSK) reported first quarter earnings of $0.42 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 worse than the Capital IQ consensus of $0.45, while revenues fell 3% year/year to $570 million versus the $583.4 million consensus. The company issued downside guidance for the second quarter with EPS of $0.39-0.44, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.51 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $550-570 million versus $597.00 million Capital IQ consensus. The company lowered FY14 guidance for fiscal year 2014 with revenue growth of 3%, which equates to approximately $2.38 billion versus the $2.44 billion Capital IQ Consensus Estimate, down from growth of 6%, which equates to ~$2.45 billion.

Applied Materials (AMAT) reported second quarter earnings of $0.16 per share, ex items, $0.03 better than the Capital IQ consensus of $0.13, while revenues fell 22.3% year/year to $1.97 billion versus the $1.92 billion consensus. The company issued guidance for the third quarter with EPS of $0.16-0.20 versus the $0.19 Capital IQ consensus and revenues of slightly QoQ (Q2 Sales $1.97 billion Q3 Capital IQ consensus: $2.12 billion) Applied generated orders of $2.27 billion, up 7 percent from the prior quarter, with Silicon Systems Group orders up 14 percent from the first quarter and Display orders up 41 percent sequentially. Net sales were $1.97 billion, up 25 percent sequentially. Gross margin was 43.2% on a non-GAAP adjusted basis, up from 39.8 percent in the prior quarter reflecting higher net sales and lower inventory charges. GAAP gross margin was 41.0 percent. For the third quarter of fiscal 2013, Applied expects net sales to be up slightly from the previous quarter. "For the second quarter in a row, Applied had strong order performance of over $2 billion...We are seeing increasing pull from some of our largest strategic customers for our key enabling technologies. We remain committed to driving profitable growth." Guidance Details: Applied expects net sales to be up slightly from the previous quarter. The company expects non-GAAP adjusted EPS to be in the range of $0.16 to $0.20. The non-GAAP adjusted EPS outlook excludes known charges related to completed acquisitions of ~$0.04 per share but does not exclude other non-GAAP adjustments that may arise subsequent to this release.