Financial Details

Dell shares were up 8.3% at $60.88 in late trading.

For the fiscal second quarter ended Aug. 4, Dell posted revenue of $22.9 billion, down 13% from a year ago, but up 10% sequentially, and $2 billion above the Street consensus forecast at $20.9 billion. The company’s forecast had called for revenue of $20.2 billion to $21.2 billion.

Dell earned $1.74 a share on an adjusted basis in the quarter, powering past both its own forecast for $1.10 and the Wall Street consensus call of $1.14. Under generally accepted accounting principles, the company earned 63 cents a share.

Cash flow from operations was $3.2 billion, while Street estimates had called for a loss on that basis of $465 million. Adjusted Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, was $2.6 billion, well above the consensus forecast of $2 billion.

The Client Solutions Group, the Dell PC business, had revenue in the quarter of $12.9 billion, down 16% from a year ago, but up 8% sequentially and well above the Street consensus of $12.1 billion. Both consumer and commercial PC revenues were above Street estimates.

Infrastructure Solutions Group, which includes servers and storage systems, had revenue of $8.5