Dell Post-Mortem: Sales Going Down, but Hope for Profit Springs Eternal

Dell hit a new 52-week low today, $8.72, before closing down 51 cents, or five percent, at $9.30, after last night reporting sales that missed estimates by a billion dollars and calling the global IT demand outlook “challenging.” The stock was downgraded from “Outperform” to “Market Perform” today by Friedman Billings. But, is there cause for hope?