Surging laptop sales rescue Dell and HP

Some companies have done better than others during the COVID-19 pandemic, and those who helped with work from home have done particularly well.

Both HP and Dell reported their Q2 earnings today, and both benefitted immensely from a surge in laptop sales over the previous quarter.

HP saw notebook shipments up 32% YoY, helping the company secure earnings per share of 49 cents on revenue of $14.3 billion, down only 2.1 percent YoY, beating analyst expectations of 43 cents per share on revenue of $13.31 billion.

“Our strong Q3 results and solid beat for the quarter, in the face of unprecedented uncertainty, reflects the agility of our teams and the strength of our portfolio,” CEO Enrique Lores said in a statement. “We’re leveraging our leadership across consumer and commercial markets to capitalize on opportunities – from the essential role of the PC in an era of remote work and school to the rise of subscription-based business models to enable greater flexibility. Our diverse portfolio and disciplined execution are powering our performance and we’re well positioned to drive continued value creation.”

Notebook revenue was up 30 percent to $7.3 billion, while desktop revenue was down 29 percent to $2.2 billion. Printing saw revenue decline 20 percent year-over-year to $3.93 billion. Commercial hardware revenue declined 37 percent to $732 million.

In summary, total hardware units were down 2 percent, with Commercial hardware units down 32 percent and Consumer hardware units up 3 percent.

Dell had a very similar story to HP.

The company also saw double-digit growth in notebooks, commercial notebooks and 25% growth in premium consumer PCs, with strength in government (+16%) and education (+24%) offset by reductions in Client (-5%), and Datacenter (-5%) revenue.

Overall the company says they had a very good quarter and exceeded average investor expectations on revenue, operating income, and especially earnings per share.

It remains to be seen how long this bump in PC sales will last, however, but with reduced mobility due to COVID-19 desktop and laptop PCs may once again find a space in the daily life of consumers.