Dell: Weisel Sees Bad Omens in Weekend Store Checks

Not a good day for Dell (DELL) shares, which are down even more sharply than the overall market.

Thomas Weisel analyst Doug Reid this morning noted that he is “incrementally more cautious” on the company after a survey of 35 “PC experts” over the Black Friday weekend at Best Buy (BBY) stores. Reid writes that Dell remains “a weak competitor” in the retail channel and that “quality problems may be re-emerging.”

Reid says that Dell’s mind share at U.S. retailers “remains weak.” He says sales people preferred Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) over Dell by 5-to-1, asserting that it offers better overall value. “While HP has been sold at Best Buy for much longer than Dell, quantitatively, the results are still somewhat disappointing considering that Dell has been sold at BBY stores for 11 months,” he writes.

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