Dell Reiterates Sales Forecast for 2001

Dell (DELL Quote) said Friday morning it expects to post total sales of about $32 billion for 2001, maintaining a forecast it made before issuing a profit warning in January.

Speaking at an e-business conference in Copenhagen, Dell Chairman and CEO Michael Dell said the PC bellwether expects more than over 50% of revenue to come from online sales and foresees the number of servers worldwide growing 20-fold in five years time.

Today's vote of confidence follows a string of earnings warnings issued by the company. Its fifth and most recent warning on Jan. 22 lowered its fourth-quarter projections, citing softness in worldwide PC demand. In November it said it expected slower sales growth for the 2001 fiscal year.

Analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial are, on average, expecting 2001 revenue of $29.8 billion, compared with $25.3 billion in 2000.