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Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) is out with its quarterly earnings. The PC giant, and technology services provider, reported adjusted earnings of $0.39 EPS and $13.7 billion in revenue. Thomson Reuters was calling for estimates of $0.40 EPS and $13.9 billion in revenue. Gross margin was 20.9%.

As far as guidance, Dell projected 2% to 5% sequential revenue growth and that would equate to a range of $14.18 to $14.59 billion. Thomson Reuters is calling for $0.40 EPS and $14.49 billion in revenue. Dell’s comments were for a challenging macroeconomic environment to continue and for those results to impact the company’s fourth quarter.

Dell ended with about $11 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the quarter. Revenue was down 9% in its Americas sales and down 11% in Asia-Pacific and Japan. EMEA revenue was down by 15%.

Dell shares closed down 0.2% at $9.56 against a 52-week range of $9.11 to $18.36. Its market cap was about $16.6 billion at the closing price. Dell shares initially popped but the stock looks like it is down by 1.5% at $9.42 in the after-hours session.

We have said it before and we will say it again. Old technology companies like this are really no different from making toasters. The only difference is that an earnings report could not be compiled nor read through a toaster. Not yet. While this is a miss, at some point the uncommon value will come into play as the earnings reports will be considered “just good enough.” That is if PCs get to maintain not just a relevance but a significant relevance.

JON C. OGG