New York, Feb 17, 2026, 18:43 EST — Trading after the bell.
- Dell slipped 1.2% at the close on Tuesday; shares barely budged in after-hours trading.
- Citigroup trimmed its price target to $160, down from $165, but stuck with its Buy rating.
- Dell dropped word of a renewed McLaren tie-up just before results set for Feb. 26.
Dell Technologies dropped 1.2% to $116.09 on Tuesday, then barely budged in after-hours moves. Citigroup lowered its price target to $160 from $165 but maintained a Buy call on the PC and server company. Trading volume hit about 5.3 million shares—less than the 50-day average. The stock remains down about 31% from its Nov. 3 52-week high. 1
The target cut is in focus as Dell approaches a pivotal earnings report, with investors sifting through signals to distinguish genuine demand from simple positioning. Hardware stocks have been volatile lately; margin chatter is usually where signs of discounting or lagging orders surface first.
Citi rolled out the change as one of several target shifts in hardware and storage names before fourth-quarter earnings. “Commentary around end demand continues to be mixed,” the firm said. With fresh numbers on deck, that kind of remark tends to move quickly.
Dell dropped new corporate news Tuesday, announcing an extension of its tie-up with McLaren Racing as “Official Innovation Partner.” The focus is on Dell’s “advanced AI infrastructure and PCs,” which McLaren will use to boost performance. “Dell’s support strengthens the way we work across the organization,” McLaren CEO Zak Brown said. For Dell, CMO Gerri Tunnell pointed to the partnership as proof of what happens when both companies “push boundaries.” 2
Dell inked a memorandum of understanding Monday with UAE-based education cloud company Ankabut, looking to ramp up high-performance computing and “GPU-as-a-service” solutions for national universities, a press release said. Walid Yehia at Dell called the partnership a fit for the UAE’s “technology-driven learning” strategy. 3
Dell’s most recent results showed third-quarter revenue hitting a record $27.0 billion, with servers and networking sales jumping 37% to $10.1 billion as enterprise buyers invested in infrastructure. 4
Dell’s been leaning hard into its AI-server strategy, bumping its fiscal 2026 AI server shipment outlook up to $20 billion as it highlights surging appetite for AI systems. 5
Still, shares sit far from last year’s highs, and profitability is the sticking point. Large-scale infrastructure projects tend to be uneven, while a pullback in corporate spending could quickly sap PC demand.
Dell reports fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter and full-year numbers on Feb. 26. The Street’s tuned in to hear if management shifts its stance on end demand, pricing, or margins—and whether all the AI backlog chatter starts making a dent in short-term revenue, not just padding out the pipeline.
