earnings

Updated at 1:37 p.m. PT with comments from earnings call.

Dell on Thursday reported third-quarter profit of $727 million, or 37 cents per share, and revenue of $15.16 billion.

Profits were down 5 percent from the same quarter a year ago, though earnings per share improved 9 percent. Revenue was down 3 percent.

Most analysts had been anticipating earnings of 32 cents per share and $16.3 billion in sales.

A year ago, Dell earned $766 million, or 34 cents per share, on $15.65 billion in sales.

Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden said on a call … Read more

Hewlett-Packard just showed its cards early, revealing Monday that next week it's going to inform its investors of some pretty impressive revenue gains during the third quarter.

That comes despite the faltering economy and increasingly ominous signs that when it comes to tech, this recession will hit the PC market the hardest. As we reported here earlier, HP is certainly well-positioned to weather a downturn, while rival Dell is still in the midst of a turnaround, and is on slightly shakier ground.

Judging by analyst predictions and industry reports, Dell's earnings won't be nearly as impressive. Both … Read more

Hewlett-Packard announced preliminary fourth-quarter results on Monday, saying it pulled in $33.6 billion in revenue, up 19 percent from the year-ago quarter, or 16 percent when adjusted for currency effects.

The company earned $1.03 per share, excluding after-tax adjustments related to amortization of purchased intangibles, restructuring, in-process research and development, and other acquisition-related charges of approximately 19 cents per share. Nonadjusted earnings were 84 cents per share.

HP plans to formally announce its quarterly results on November 24.

Looking ahead, the company said it expects currency exchanges rates to continue to be an issue, hitting revenue by about … Read more

This autumn has not been kind to name-brand companies like AIG, General Motors, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch. But the tech industry seemed to be cruising along without any major disasters--until Monday that is.

Venerable networking giant Nortel Networks announced a third-quarter loss of $3.4 billion, or $6.85 per share. As of this writing, the company's stock is trading around 80 cents with a market cap just over $400 million. Yikes!

Why is a company that did over $10 billion last year worth so little? The primary reason is liquidity. Financial analysts estimate that the company is … Read more

Updated at 5:20 p.m. throughout. Also, correction made for earnings per share.

In the third quarter of its fiscal year, Nvidia's profit dropped sharply from last year's levels, but revenue came in above forecasts.

For the three months that ended October 26, profit sank 74 percent to $61.7 million, or 11 cents a share, from $235.7 million a year earlier. Excluding costs from stock compensation and other expenses, earnings were 20 cents a share. This exceeded the average estimate of 11 cents projected by First Call.

Revenue for the world's largest graphics chip … Read more

Video game publisher Electronic Arts on Thursday cut its forecast for the fiscal year and said it will slash its workforce 6 percent, or about 580 jobs, to reduce costs.

The Redwood City, Calif.-based company posted a net second-quarter loss of $310 million, or 97 cents, compared with a loss of $195 million, or 62 cents per share, for the year-ago period. Sales were up 40 percent year-over-year to $894 million on strength of the company's Rock Band, Spore, and Madden game titles.

However, EA cut its forecast for fiscal 2009 earnings per share excluding special items to … Read more

More dire forecasts for the chip industry.

On the heels of comments from a chip industry watchdog group last week saying the chip equipment business is "on hold," Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, said PC-related chip shipments are expected to be off 20 percent in the fourth quarter.

This bodes ill for PC makers, which appear to be cutting way back on chip orders.

"(For) our fourth quarter computer-related wafer shipments...we expect to see over a 20 percent decline. Which is very severe...compared to a seasonal mid-teens percentage … Read more

The iconic American technology company Motorola is in big trouble. But can a last ditch effort by a new top executive help the company pull one of the biggest comebacks in American business history?

That's the question that everyone is asking after Motorola broke the bad news on its quarterly conference call Thursday that the handset business, which has been in serious trouble for more than two years, will likely not make a turnaround until early 2010. The problems are so grave at the company, which reported huge losses for the third quarter, that Motorola is delaying its planned … Read more

Updated at 3:10 p.m., with comments from the earnings call.

Sun Microsystems reported a 7 percent drop in first-quarter revenue on Thursday, coming in the midrange of its previously lowered earnings forecast.

The embattled hardware maker posted revenue of $2.99 billion for the quarter, a drop from its year-ago performance.

Sun also posted a net loss of $1.68 billion, or $2.24 a share, for the first quarter, compared with a net profit of $89 million, or 10 cents a share, a year ago. Excluding its restructuring charge and write-offs for the declining value of its … Read more