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This is from today’s Wall Street Journal:

For the quarter ended Feb. 3, the Round Rock, Texas, company reported net income of $1.01 billion, or 43 cents a share, up from $667 million, or 26 cents a share, a year earlier. The results exceeded Wall Street's expectations of 41 cents a share.

Revenue rose 13% to $15.18 billion from $13.46 billion a year earlier.
The company said sales outside the U.S. were 43% of its overall revenue for the fourth quarter, up from 40% in the year-earlier period. The company said it gained share in every region during the year. In Europe, revenue rose 18% to $3.7 billion, while Asia Pacific-Japan revenue was up 21% to $1.7 billion.

Kevin Rollins, Dell's chief executive, said the company's success in countries such as China and Germany shows that its direct-sales business model is preferred by people in all regions. Overall demand is "pretty darn healthy," he said in a conference call with reporters.

Yet the stock is trading about 5% lower today. Wall Street’s reaction simply makes no sense. They lower expectations, and the stock falls. They beat expectations, and the stock falls.

I’ll have more to say on this later. Meanwile, here's Dell's conference call from Seeking Alpa.

Posted by edelfenbein at February 17, 2006 11:53 AM