Key Points
- Dell Technologies posted the strongest quarterly results among the three, with revenue rising 88% year-over-year and AI server sales surging over 700% year-over-year.
- Super Micro Computer, Dell, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise all reported significant earnings beats, with each stock posting double-digit gains following their reports.
- Analysts see the most upside potential in HPE, with a consensus price target near $65 implying almost 20% gains from current levels.
- Special Report: One mistake is costing you trades
AI server stocks are no longer moving on hype alone.
Three of the most well-known artificial intelligence (AI) server companies reported earnings reports within the last month—Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI), Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL), and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE)—and the market’s reaction was anything but muted, with each company seeing massive up moves after their latest reports were released.
The rally across these three names shows that Wall Street is still willing to chase the AI infrastructure trade, but the biggest upside may belong to the companies turning AI demand into measurable earnings momentum.
Super Micro Comptuer Rallies as Margins Improve Despite Revenue Miss
Supermicro shares surging over 24.5% afterward they reported fiscal Q3 2026 earnings on May 5 , despite a big-time sales miss.
Revenue came in at $10.24 billion, skyrocketing by more than 123% year-over-year (YOY). However, this was far below Supermicro’s own estimates of at least $12.3 billion. Meanwhile, its adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of 84 cents smashed expectations of 63 cents.
Overall, investors seemed to look very favorably on SMCI’s improved bottom line.
The company continued to show a trade-off between revenue growth and its very low adjusted gross margin. While sales fell short of expectations, adjusted gross margin improved by 370 basis points to 10.1%. This improvement was good to see, but whether its will hold up consistently over time remains questionable.
Later in May and in early June, SMCI rode the wave of other AI server stocks that posted extremely strong results. SMCI shares surged by approximately 68% in May, marking the stock’s best monthly return since February 2024, when shares rose over 63%. Despite this recent surge, SMCI shares remain down over 50% from their all-time high in early 2024.
Analysts have given SMCI a consensus Hold rating and a price target of $39, which impllies nearly 17% downside potential.
Dell Destroys Estimates as AI Sales, Orders, and Backlog Spike
Dell’s fiscal Q1 2027 earnings report came on May 28 and blew estimates out of the water.
Analysts were expecting strong growth of roughly 53%, but Dell’s results cleared that high bar by a wide margin.
Revenue hit $43.84 billion, rising by 88% YOY and beating estimates by a whopping $8.1 billion, as analysts forecasted growth of just 53% YOY. Adjusted EPS grew by more than 214% YOY to $4.86, far above estimates of $2.96.
Subsequently, Dell gained nearly 33% after its report was released, for a total May gain of 101%.
AI servers continued to be a very strong demand driver, with Dell reporting sales of $16.1 billion, rising over 700% YOY. AI server orders came in at $24.4 billion, with a solid book-to-bill ratio of 1.5x, implying that demand is strengthening. The company ended the quarter with a $51.3 billion AI server backlog and expects to generate $60 billion in AI server revenue in its full fiscal year.
Dell issued a huge $27 billion increase to its full-year revenue guidance, and an even more impressive $5 increase to its adjusted EPS guidance. It now sees these figures coming in at $167 billion and $17.90, indicating expected YOY growth of 47% and 74%, respectively. This would mark Dell’s highest annual growth rate by far since returning to public markets in December 2018.
The analyst consensus price target for Dell now sits at $475.76, indicating nearly 13% upside potential.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Booms as Financial Plan Moves 2 Years Ahead of Schedule
While Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) did not release its fiscal Q2 2026 earnings report until June 1, the stock also soared in May—along with other server stocks—rising by just under 50%.
HPE posted substantial beats on both its top and bottom lines. Revenue came in at $10.68 billion, equating to growth of 40% YOY, which beat estimates by nearly $900 million. Analysts had forecasted growth of only 28% YOY. Adjusted EPS rose by 108% YOY to 79 cents, walloping estimates of 54 cents.
HPE booked $1.8 billion in new AI systems orders, bringing cumulative AI systems bookings to $16.4 billion, and entered Q3 with $5.9 billion in backlog.
Total sales in its Cloud and AI segment rose by 23% YOY. Based on its strong results, HPE significantly raised its guidance for the full year, now expecting adjusted EPS of $3.40 at the midpoint. This marks a full $1 increase compared to past estimates of $2.40.
The firm is now two years ahead of schedule on reaching its financial targets, as HPE previously expected to hit adjusted EPS of $3.40 in 2028. This makes it no surprise that HPE soared by 19.5% after its earnings report.
After these results and the following price target updates, Wall Street analysts are projecting the most upside potential in HPE. The MarketBeat consensus price target sits near $65, implying upside of almost 20%, as price targets moved up substantially after the company's earnings report. The average of updated targets sits near $69 per share, implying more than 20% upside.
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