NEW YORK, March 2, 2026, 14:21 ET — Regular trading hours
- Dell stock climbed roughly 1.9% in afternoon action after the company announced a $0.63 per-share quarterly dividend.
- Bernstein stuck with its Outperform rating, citing ongoing strength in AI server demand.
- Dell’s CFO is set to speak at a conference on March 4, with investors eyeing any new remarks on margins and demand.
Dell Technologies (DELL) climbed almost 2% Monday following news that its board approved a quarterly cash dividend. The hardware maker’s stock has been drawing attention lately, fueled by strong demand for its artificial intelligence servers after a sharp rally.
Investors are zeroing in on dividends, pushing PC and server makers to back up their AI growth narratives with real cash returns. Dell picked up on that, and right now, its stock is behaving like a go-to play for anyone betting on the AI infrastructure wave.
Whether fundamentals or just shifting sentiment will drive the next move remains up in the air. Traders have jumped at anything tied to data centers lately; still, they haven’t hesitated to hit stocks when margins disappoint.
Dell picked up 1.9% to $150.83 in afternoon trading, after starting the session at $147.50. Shares moved in a narrow band, from $149.96 to $151.00, and volume hit roughly 8.1 million. The S&P 500 ETF SPY held steady, while QQQ edged a little higher.
Dell set its dividend at $0.63 per common share, with payment scheduled for May 1 to holders on record by April 21. 1
Bernstein’s Mark Newman stuck with his Outperform call and the $180 target on Dell this Monday. He pointed to what he described as “solid execution and strong position as the leading AI Server OEM”—a combination, he said, that’s pushed Dell’s results past what analysts had penciled in. 2
Dell late last week projected fiscal 2027 revenue ahead of what Wall Street had penciled in, pointing to annual AI server sales doubling—up about 103%—to an estimated $50 billion. The company also unveiled a $10 billion boost to its buyback program and announced a bigger dividend. 3
Dell finds itself straddling two jammed arenas. On one side, servers built for AI training and inference; on the other, the PC segment, always at the mercy of corporate upgrade cycles. Rivals? HP Inc and Lenovo on the PC front, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Super Micro are jostling for server market share.
Still, there are risks to this rally. Investors zeroed in on rising memory costs—especially DRAM, the main memory chip for PCs—and flagged the potential for margin pressure if demand slips or shifts, or if supply tightens and pricing gets squeezed. 4
Investors now turn to Wednesday, March 4. That’s when Dell CFO David Kennedy is set for a fireside chat at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom Conference. 5
