Don't Get Me Started on Dell..
If it's trading under $25, then that represents a greater than 3 year low, while the Dow is making 5 (6?) year highs and the NASDAQ is having a decent year so far.
Dell is not the growth company that they were in the first 8 to 10 years. If you look at a ten year chart, it looks pretty flat for the last 5 years. In terms of growth, DELL is closer to a company like IBM than say one like HANS. Despite the hype regarding growth via China, India, etc., IMHO DELL is just too large to grow at 20+ % a year. That's not a crime, but it just seems that the company has been in denial about this for about seven years or so.
Dell has a great business model for getting the customer the computer he/she wants, but in the end, they are selling a commodity and assembling products from Microsoft and Intel. They started with an innovative business model, but hardly have an innovative product. Compare this the the Apple story since the return of Steve Jobs...I think there are 4 or 5 IPods in my house as of this writing (I have teenagers). I think is was about 5 or 6 years ago that Michael Dell said that Apple would best serve its shareholders by closing up shop and sending them the leftover cash. Compare the DELL chart and AAPL chart for the last 5 years, and Michael doesn't seem so visionary lately.
I have owned a couple of Dell PCs, the last one was 3 PCs back. It worked 'ok', but the customer service and technical support after the purchase were a nightmare. So, my last 2 PCs have been HP/Compaq products. I've been very happy with these and have had far fewer problems with them than I ever had will Dell.
Sorry, didn't mean to go off on a rant about Dell. Any investor would have been happy to own Dell stock prior to 1999, but for the life of me I can't imagine why anyone would have wanted to own it over the last few years (with the exception of short term swing or daytrading).
All comments and criticisms welcome.
LoDo |
