Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE), Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI), and ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) surged in early premarket trading on Friday after Dell Technologies posted a stunning first-quarter earnings report.
HPE led the sympathy rally with a gain of 21%, while SMCI climbed over 11% and NOW rose more than 6%, triggering high retail interest on the Stocktwits platform.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Super Micro are Dell’s primary competitors in servers, storage, networking, and enterprise infrastructure, and both companies target much of the same customer base.
Dell’s fiscal first-quarter revenue jumped 88% to $43.84 billion, easily surpassing analysts’ expectations of $35.74 billion, driven by exceptional demand for its AI-optimized servers.
AI-optimized server sales alone contributed $16.1 billion to Dell’s total revenue, representing more than a third of the company’s quarterly haul and a 757% increase year-over-year.
Dell’s adjusted profit came in at $4.86 per share, sharply exceeding the analyst target of $2.96 per share.
Following the blowout quarter, Dell raised its full-year revenue forecast to a range of $165 billion to $169 billion, up from a prior range of $138 billion to $142 billion.
Dell also lifted its adjusted earnings guidance to $17.90 per share at the midpoint, compared to its previous guidance of $12.90 per share.
ServiceNow’s rally was further supported by news that the company and Indian IT firm Wipro announced an expanded agreement to sell bundled solutions to Wipro’s clients.
Dell and ServiceNow share a longstanding partnership centered on enterprise IT management, cloud operations, cybersecurity workflows, and AI infrastructure management, with Dell integrating parts of its infrastructure and support software with ServiceNow’s platform for large enterprise customers.
Retail sentiment for HPE and SMCI on Stocktwits shifted to “extremely bullish” from “bullish” the previous day, while sentiment for NOW moved to “bullish” from “neutral.”
One trader captured the mood around the two server-focused stocks, writing: “Old saying, every dog has its day. That day has come for HPE and SMCI!”
NOW also drew significant attention from retail traders, having rebounded nearly 30% since its earnings report on April 22, with one trader writing: “$NOW is breaking out! Mark my words this will be one of the best performing stocks into the end of the year. Know what you own!”
