Dell Profit Rises 52% on Holiday PC Sales Briefing: SAN FRANCISCO

Dell, the world’s largest maker of personal computers, said on Thursday that fourth-quarter profit rose 52 percent as PC shipments reached a record during the holidays. The sales and earnings forecast for this quarter, however, missed analysts’ estimates. Net income rose to $1.01 billion, or 43 cents a share, from $667 million, or 26 cents, a year earlier, Dell said. Sales rose 13 percent to $15.2 billion in the period through Feb. 3. The forecast heightened concern about the company’s growth after the company missed sales forecasts twice last year. Dell is having trouble keeping up with gains at Hewlett-Packard, which gave optimistic projections last night after undercutting Dell’s prices to win clients over the holidays. Dell had forecast sales of $14.6 billion to $15 billion and profit of 40 cents to 42 cents in the quarter, which ran 14 weeks, about a week longer than usual.