Much noise is being made in the press with regard to Dell Inc.'s (DELL) preliminary results. On Dell's investor page, you can read the latest press release and accompanying financial statements. The problem is, only preliminary income statement is shown along with some ancilliary data. There is no balance sheet or cash flow statements. For a company as big as Dell with lots of computers at its disposal, I am surprised that it cannot cobble together a complete set of financial statements, even if preliminary. No matter, the bulls are excited and bid the stock up 10% after hours.
The company earned $677 million or $0.30 per share. Revenue was $14.4 billion. From Yahoo!'s website, analysts expected $0.24 per share and $14.44 billion. Given that the revenue number was more or less in line, how did Dell knock the cover off the ball in terms of earnings?
Perhaps when all is said and done, Dell's results are truly outstanding and the company's stock deserves to be bid up even further. My complaint is that, if it is going to release financial information, it should release sufficient information for investors to make an informed decision. Simply providing an income statement is insufficient. Moreover, there was no conference call to allow analysts to probe the company about its financial health.
As a matter of disclosure, I am neither long nor short Dell. I am merely a puzzled observer.
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