Dell Surges 30% on Blockbuster Guidance While Gap and SentinelOne Slide

CNBC reported Thursday that Dell Technologies after hours was the headline story of the evening, with shares jumping 30% following an earnings guidance raise that dramatically exceeded Wall Street expectations.

Dell Blows Past Every Estimate

Dell Technologies lifted its full-year adjusted earnings target to $17.90 per share. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had penciled in just $13.09 per share. Revenue guidance of $165 billion to $169 billion similarly dwarfed the $142.5 billion consensus. The move was one of the largest single-session after-hours surges for a major technology company this earnings cycle.

Identity security firm Okta and data infrastructure provider NetApp each gained roughly 12% as well. Both companies posted first-quarter beats and issued current-quarter and full-year guidance that cleared analyst forecasts. Cloud operations platform PagerDuty also advanced 12% after lifting its full-year earnings outlook above prior guidance and consensus estimates.

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Retail Names Feel the Pressure

The session was far less kind to apparel retailers. Gap tumbled 13% after the company trimmed its full-year sales growth forecast to between 1% and 2%, down from a prior range of 2% to 3%. First-quarter revenue of $3.50 billion also fell short of the $3.52 billion estimate, per LSEG, even as adjusted earnings of 38 cents per share edged past forecasts.

American Eagle Outfitters dropped roughly 11%. Comparable sales at its flagship banner fell 2% in the first quarter, missing analyst expectations for growth of 3.1%. Second-quarter operating income guidance of $45 million to $50 million came in well below the $65.3 million FactSet consensus.

Background: Earnings Season Under the Microscope

Corporate guidance has drawn extra scrutiny this earnings cycle as investors weigh the impact of ongoing tariff uncertainty and softening consumer demand. Retailers with broad domestic exposure have faced particular pressure to justify forward estimates. Technology companies with enterprise software or infrastructure exposure have generally fared better, benefiting from continued corporate spending on AI and data management.

Software Stocks Split the Difference

Not every software name closed higher. Cybersecurity firm SentinelOne fell 17% after guiding for current-quarter revenue of $289 million to $291 million, narrowly below the $292 million analysts expected. Elastic dropped 9% on a weaker-than-expected earnings outlook for its current quarter. Autodesk shed nearly 5% despite beating first-quarter estimates, with a miss in ex-subscription revenue drawing attention. On the positive side, MongoDB gained 6% and Asana rose 3% after both companies raised revenue guidance above consensus.

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