NEW YORK, May 23, 2026, 09:04 EDT
- Dell shares surged 16.77% Friday, ending the session at a record $295.19, after hitting $298.32 during the day.
- U.S. stock markets are shut for Memorial Day and reopen Tuesday. Dell is set to post fiscal Q1 numbers on May 28.
- The next thing to watch is if AI server demand is strong enough to raise guidance, but doesn’t cut into margins.
Dell Technologies Inc. shares finished at a record high Friday, climbing 16.77% to $295.19. The stock has jumped about 22% since last Friday’s close. Investors loaded up ahead of next week’s earnings. The move came ahead of the extended U.S. market holiday.
Dell shares don’t trade on Monday, May 25, with U.S. markets closed for Memorial Day. Trading picks back up Tuesday. The company’s fiscal 2027 first-quarter results drop after the close two days later, and management plans a conference call for 3:30 p.m. CDT.
Dell is less tied to PCs these days. Investors now price in its AI server business — machines loaded with chips for artificial intelligence — plus signs that big customers are switching from trial runs to real production.
Analysts shifted targets on Friday. Wells Fargo’s Aaron Rakers moved his Dell price target up to $270 from $180, sticking with an Overweight rating, meaning he sees the stock doing better than peers. JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Bank of America bumped up their targets too. Morgan Stanley raised its price target but kept Dell at Underweight, still seeing it lag.
Dell kept making its AI pitch at Dell Technologies World this week. The company said over 5,000 customers are using its Dell AI Factory with Nvidia. Michael Dell, chairman and CEO, said Dell is helping customers turn their “data into AI fuel” on infrastructure they own. Dell
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is turning up the heat. “Enterprise AI adoption is going parabolic,” Huang said. He also called it a “gigantic leap in computation requirements.” Nvidia chips are behind a big chunk of Dell’s AI hardware business. Dell’s AI servers use Nvidia hardware. NVIDIA Blog
Dell’s numbers are already solid. In February, the company said fiscal 2026 revenue was up 19% to $113.5 billion. Dell reported a $43 billion backlog for AI-optimized servers heading into fiscal 2027, which are orders not yet delivered. Dell is guiding for fiscal 2027 revenue between $138 billion and $142 billion, and about $50 billion in AI server revenue.
HP Inc. rallied 15.3% Friday, standing out ahead of its results next week, while Super Micro Computer, which focuses on AI servers, added 6.3%. Gains in these names came with the S&P 500 up 0.4% Friday as the index logged its eighth straight week of gains.
Dell’s big data-center move is about more than building bigger AI boxes, according to Matt Kimball, VP and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. He said Dell is tackling the “operational reality across the full stack,” with storage, PowerEdge servers and cyber-resilience tools in the mix. That’s the moderate bull view: a fuller bundle of hardware and software, not just AI muscle. Dell Technologies
But the rally has a risk. AI server revenues might jump but margins could stay thin, since expensive parts like memory and GPUs can bite into profits. Options data tracked by Bloomberg and mentioned by Investing.com shows traders are pricing in a move of about 11% after Dell’s May 28 earnings.
Dell heads into the week with a clear job. The company has to prove demand is going up, supply can keep pace, and AI sales are feeding into profits, not just bigger numbers. If those pieces don’t come through, Friday’s record could wind up looking premature.
