{"id":440207,"date":"2026-10-16T07:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T00:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/market-news\/icymi-dell-shares-slide-17-in-two-days-as-barclays-questions-enterprise-ai-demand-440207\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T07:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T00:40:13","slug":"icymi-dell-shares-slide-17-in-two-days-as-barclays-questions-enterprise-ai-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/market-news\/icymi-dell-shares-slide-17-in-two-days-as-barclays-questions-enterprise-ai-demand-440207\/","title":{"rendered":"ICYMI: Dell shares slide 17% in two days as Barclays questions enterprise AI demand"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The follow-through selling puts AI hardware tied to enterprise demand under sustained pressure, with servers, storage and networking stocks most exposed. The call does not dispute spending by the largest cloud and AI companies, leaving chipmakers and hyperscaler suppliers on firmer ground. Memory prices are the key sensitivity: any sign they are levelling off would strengthen the bearish case for hardware revenue. With Dell still up sharply this year, positioning remains crowded, which raises the risk of further profit-taking until the company\u2019s own results give investors fresh evidence.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8212;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Updating this, all intertwined with the tech sell off of course.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8212;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\nBarclays asked whether Dell\u2019s customers are buying more or just paying more for memory, and two days and 17% later, the market is still voting with its feet.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Summary:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>Dell shares fell about 11% on Wednesday and about 7% on Thursday, a two-day drop of roughly 17%<\/li>\n<li>The stock closed Thursday near $473, nearly 20% below its mid-September record<\/li>\n<li>Barclays cut Dell to equal weight from overweight and its target to $574 from $603<\/li>\n<li>HPE and NetApp were also downgraded to equal weight<\/li>\n<li>Barclays argues higher memory prices, not enterprise AI demand, are lifting hardware revenue<\/li>\n<li>Dell has still nearly quadrupled this year, despite the selloff<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\nShares of Dell Technologies extended their slide on Thursday, falling about 7% after an 11% drop on Wednesday. Investors were digesting a Barclays downgrade arguing that the company\u2019s booming revenue owes more to rising memory chip prices than to a genuine pickup in business spending on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The two-day decline of roughly 17% took the stock to around $473 at Thursday\u2019s close. That leaves Dell nearly 20% below its record close in mid-September, close to the threshold many investors use to define a bear market. Thursday\u2019s losses came early, with the shares opening sharply lower and briefly trading down nearly 11% before recovering some ground.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Barclays analyst Tim Long cut Dell to equal weight from overweight and lowered his price target to $574 from $603. He also downgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise and NetApp to equal weight, applying a similar argument across enterprise hardware.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The core of the Barclays case is that enterprise AI spending has yet to show a meaningful inflection. Instead, Long argued, much of the recent strength in hardware makers\u2019 results reflects higher memory costs being passed through to customers. That lifts reported revenue without a matching rise in underlying demand. If memory prices normalise or fall, that support could fade and leave revenue exposed.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The selloff follows an extraordinary run. Even after two days of heavy losses, Dell shares have nearly quadrupled this year, leaving little room for disappointment. The timing also creates a sharp contrast with the company\u2019s own message. A day before the downgrade, Chief Executive Michael Dell said enterprise AI demand was only just beginning and that demand for AI computing still exceeded supply.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The pressure spread across AI hardware, with server maker Super Micro Computer and networking group Arista Networks among the stocks that weakened, while the broader technology sector posted more modest losses. That pattern suggests investors treated the call as a warning about one corner of the AI trade, hardware tied to enterprise demand, rather than a verdict on AI spending as a whole.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The follow-through selling on Thursday matters. A one-day drop on a downgrade can reflect a quick repricing, but a second day of heavy losses suggests investors are reassessing how much of Dell\u2019s growth is durable. The next test will be Dell\u2019s own results and guidance. They should show whether AI server orders are broadening across enterprise customers, and how much of its revenue growth comes from pricing rather than volume.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>                            This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The follow-through selling puts AI hardware tied to enterprise demand under sustained pressure, with servers, storage and networking stocks most exposed. The call does not dispute spending by the largest cloud and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":216,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-440207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}