DELL: FYQ4 on Tap; Will There Be ‘Guidance’?

Shares of Dell (DELL) are up a penny at $13.82 in advance of the company’s fiscal Q4 report this afternoon.

The Street is modeling $14.12 billion in revenue and 39 cents EPS, excluding some costs.

A point of disagreement between analysts is whether there will be a forecast for this quarter given the ongoing effort to take Dell private on the part of CEO Michael Dell, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Microsoft (MSFT).

Abhey Lamba with Mizuho Securities USA writes that he expects revenue to miss “slightly” but profit to be in line with expectations.

“The quarter should indicate continued weakness in PCs and servers while networking should show some growth,” writes Lamba, adding that the company seems to have walked away from less-profitable segments of PCs during the quarter:

Gartner�s 4Q12 data and our checks indicated that Dell remained highly focused on the profitability of its transactions and shied away from lower margin PC business, especially if it did not include any data center component. The company experienced over 20% decline in units shipped during C4Q12, which will impact its performance in the quarter. In servers, macro remains an overhang on the overall market while networking will likely post double digit growth for Dell.

Also this morning, Brian Marshall with ISI Group reiterates a Neutral rating, writing that the company may meet revenue estimates but miss on the bottom line with perhaps 36 cents.

Unlike Lamba, he actually does expect an outlook for this quarter, writing:

Although CEO Michael Dell could be somewhat limited in what he can say with respect to his offer to take the company private, investors will look for clues on his willingness to see the deal through either at the current price or slightly higher. If current results and the Apr-13 outlook come in above expectations, odds that the deal is completed around the current price will diminish.

A short while ago, David Katz, the chief investment officer of Matrix Asset Advisors, was on CNBC sharing a fairly positive view on Dell and the proposed LBO:

We think Dell is going to be a successful business. They have made great strides to be a server and software and networking business, and they’re not getting any credit for that. The PC is not going away, and the server and software and networking business is going to be a long-term business. [Regarding PC competition] We think Dell will respond rationally, and Hewelett-Packard (HPQ), although they put out a press release, really does have some problems. We just think it’s going to be a little bit easier [for Dell] as a private company. You don’t have to answer to analysts every quarter if you miss by $50 million on revenue or a penny on earnings.