The computer maker announced after market close on Thursday that it recorded a profit of $501 million, or 19 cents per share, on revenue of $8.46 billion for its second fiscal quarter, which ended Aug. 2. During the same period a year ago, Dell posted a loss of 4 cents per share including charges.
Although most major PC manufacturers are losing money and are seeing a decline in market shares, Dell is expanding, the company said in a statement, predicting that the growth will continue. PC shipments for the industry as a whole will likely be the same or up slightly from the second quarter to the third--a usual seasonal phenomenon, executives said. Dell"s shipments, however, could increase by 5 percent or more sequentially. As a result, the PC maker said it expects to record profit of 20 to 21 cents on revenue of $8.9 billion for its third quarter.