Dell, VMware withdraw fiscal 2021 guidance

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, tech giants such as Dell and VMware  announced to withdraw their 2021 fiscal guidance. Other companies including Twitter and Square too are reported to pull back their financial outlook due to the current crisis at hand.

In an 8-K filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dell Technologies Inc. stated that the company is currently focusing on finding more effective solutions to work from home and aims to continue the execution of its global supply chain facility. But given the current situation, Dell is unable to predict the impact on its business operations, financial performance and results of operations for the current fiscal year due to COVID-19. The company has claimed to remain confident in its liquidity position and has decided to provide more information during its fiscal first-quarter earnings call scheduled on May 29.

A month ago, Dell predicted its 2021 fiscal year and claimed to earn revenue between $91.8 billion and $94.8 billion,  operating income of $3.4bn to $4bn; and earnings per share of $0.37 to $1.07. By way of comparison, FY 2020 produced $92.2bn sales, full-year operating income of $2.6bn, net income of $5.5bn, and earnings per share of $0.54 and on the other hand, VMware has sent a notice to SEC for its withdrawal from the financial guidance due to the increased level of uncertainty in the past months. The company forecast fiscal 2021 revenue of approximately $12.05 billion, with a revenue of roughly $2.73 billion in the first quarter of 2021.

When issuing that guidance [PDF], Dell told investors: "This full year guidance does not factor in any potential COVID-19 impact," adding that it expected "a negative impact on our normal Q1 seasonality driven by softness in China, our second largest market. Today's filing has some good news in that Dell said: "The company currently is seeing heightened interest in work from home solutions and continuing execution in its global supply chain, and remains confident in its liquidity position.