Dell Technologies (DELL): Mixed Outlook Amid Strategic AI Partnerships

Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) is one of the best affordable tech stocks to buy right now. On February 9, the Piper Sandler analyst team, led by James Fish, maintained its Overweight rating on Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) but flagged a cautious outlook ahead of the company’s earnings announcement.

The analysts described Dell’s earnings setup for calendar year 2026 as “concerning to mixed.” They said that Dell has been performing well in certain areas, but overall, the company faces a more difficult setup than many of its peers. They pointed to Dell’s “cost+” pricing model and rising component costs as factors that could pressure gross and operating margins in the coming periods. As a result, the analysts forecasted Dell’s FY27 revenue to begin at roughly $120 billion.

This note comes just three and a half months after Piper Sandler initiated coverage of Dell on October 22, 2025, with the same Overweight rating and a $172 price target. And the cautious stance contrasts with earlier optimism from November 2025, when the firm maintained this rating and highlighted Dell as a beneficiary of AI traction.

Independently of the analyst action, on January 28, Dell partnered with NxtGen AI Pvt Ltd to build what it described as India’s first and largest dedicated AI factory. The project’s goal is to expand India’s domestic AI computing capacity. According to Dell, the AI infrastructure deployment will include over 4,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs and NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking. The infrastructure is designed to handle demanding model training and inference tasks.

Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) develops and sells personal computers, servers, storage devices, networking equipment, and IT solutions. Its product portfolio includes laptops, desktops, workstations, and enterprise infrastructure systems. These are complemented by services in cloud computing and cybersecurity.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.