Dell Q4 shows record shipments, revenue, profits...

Dell on Thursday said its fourth quarter revenue rose 18 per cent on an increase in product shipments, driven by taking away business from rivals as well as general sector growth.

The PC maker reported net profits of $749m, or 29 cents per share, in the quarter ended 30 January. That's up from $603m, or 23 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue increased to $11.5bn, compared with $9.7bn a year ago.

On average, analysts expected Dell to post a profit of 28 cents per share on revenue of $11.5bn, according to a survey by Thompson First Call.

It was the direct vendor's best quarter so far, setting company records in unit shipments, revenue, net income and earnings per share.

In Europe, while the weakening of the US dollar against the euro and British pound has helped figures, Dell noted the company is still growing. Paul Bell, Dell EMEA president, said: "The growth in Europe and Asia has been particularly pleasing but then they are younger businesses" which are growing faster.

Dell increased its shipments more than 20 per cent in the Americas and more than 30 per cent in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Japan and the Asia-Pacific region, the company said.

The company increased shipments of servers by 40 per cent. Shipments of desktop PCs increased 21 per cent, and notebooks increased 40 per cent. Dell also indicated that it shipped nearly a million Dell-branded printers in the quarter, increasing its total shipments since March 2003 to two million units.

The most recent quarter saw printer supply deals struck with Eastman Kodak, Fuji Xerox and Samsung Electronics, adding to a long-term partnership with Lexmark.

Meanwhile, the company boosted its year-over-year revenue for storage systems by 47 per cent and for peripherals by 36 per cent. Earlier this week, Dell refreshed its product line-up - mainly for mid-range storage area networks - with leading storage vendor EMC.

Dell ended fiscal 2004 with a net profits of $2.6bn on revenue of $41bn, moving it closer to its goal of reaching $60bn in annual revenue.

Dell executives believe that two things will help the company in the current quarter. First, it expects prices for PC components to reduce after the last quarter the year, which always sees strong demand because of Christmas sales. Second, it expects companies to increase the number of PCs they buy.

Demand from the smaller-size firms has been higher, overall, but sales to larger businesses have increased from where they were even a couple quarters ago, Dell said.

Dell's Bell said the company is "cautiously optimistic" about its growth and declined to talk about any goals beyond the $60bn five-year plan, which may be completed early at the current growth rate.

John G Spooner writes for CNET News.com.