Dell in focus as Piper Sandler sees upside amid AI bump, PC refresh

[Dell Technologies office Silicon Valley in Santa Clara, California, USA]
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Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/DELL]) was in focus on Wednesday as Piper Sandler initiated coverage on the IT giant with an Overweight rating, citing the potential for upside from artificial intelligence and a PC refresh cycle.

Shares rose 0.7% in premarket trading.

“Positively, Dell should be one of the primary beneficiaries of upcoming enterprise datacenter refresh that looks particularly strong for 2026, AI infrastructure buildouts, and Win-10 end-of-life in which ~50% of units still need to be refreshed or remain vulnerable,” Piper Sandler analyst James Fish wrote in a note to clients. “However, Dell will face the secular headwind in the shift towards cloud by enterprises, refresh is a double-edged sword that could lead to market share losses persisting (though have shown recent stability), and PC share has been falling not only in the shift towards Apple, but also to other PC makers. We believe the opportunities remain strong for Dell over the next 12-months, and generally like the setup / entry-point here.”

In addition to the Overweight rating, Fish put a $172 price target on Dell.

Delving deeper, Fish said that while Dell does not have exposure to the hyperscalers, its AI exposure comes from neoclouds, enterprises and sovereign spending. Roughly 45% of its server business over the past 12 months was AI-based, Fish explained.

And even though more work loads are moving to the cloud, the cyclicality of enterprises looking to modernize their data centers in the near and medium-term may benefit Dell for now, Fish posited.

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