(Reuters) – Dell Technologies Inc beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue on Thursday as demand for its notebooks and software products was fueled by a pandemic-led remote working environment.
Coronavirus restrictions over the past year have led to people working and studying from home, which in turn boosted sales of Dell’s cloud services and at-home hardwares.
Global shipments of PCs, the industry’s collective term for laptops and desktops, grew 55.2% during the first quarter, according to preliminary data from research firm International Data Corporation.
Dell said revenue from its client solutions group, which includes desktops, notebooks and tablets, rose 20% to $13.31 billion in the reported quarter.
The PC maker also said it had paid down $2.5 billion in debt this year and revised its debt paydown target for fiscal year 2022 to at least $16.0 billion, upon the completion of its spin-off of cloud computing software maker VMware Inc.
During the quarter, Dell had announced the spin-off of its Boomi cloud business and the divestment of its major stake in VMware in order to lower its debt load.
Dell’s revenue rose 12% to $24.49 billion in the first quarter, beating estimates of $23.40 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
The company’s shares have risen about 36% this year.
(Reporting by Nilanjana Basu in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel)
