Dell Stock Is Gaining In After Hours – Here’s Why

• Goldman Sachs kept a ‘Buy’ rating on the shares.
• DELL in a 10-K filing this week disclosed that it has slashed its workforce by 10% or 11,000 employees in fiscal 2026. 
• Goldman sees the reduction in workforce as supportive of the company's guidance for operating expenses.

Dell Technologies (DELL) shares jumped nearly 2% during extended hours of trading on Friday after an analyst at Goldman Sachs raised the price target on the stock. 

Goldman Sachs analyst Katherine Murphy raised the firm's price target on Dell Technologies to $195 from $180 and kept a ‘Buy’ rating on the shares.

Analyst in a research note to investors said that DELL disclosed that its headcount was down 10% year-over-year to 97,000 employees, the third consecutive year when headcount declined by 10%, which the analyst sees as supportive of the company's guidance for operating expenses to grow low single digits in FY27.

Headcount

DELL in a 10-K filing this week disclosed that it has slashed its workforce by 10% or 11,000 employees in fiscal year 2026. 

The company spent $569 million in severance payments in ​this period, compared with $693 million a year ​ago, its annual report showed. Dell had about ⁠97,000 employees as of Jan. 31, down ​from about 108,000 employees a year ago. Its ​workforce had declined by about 10% in fiscal year 2025.

DELL, earlier this year, announced a 20% hike in its cash dividend and said that it will purchase an additional $10 billion of its own shares. 

AI-Enforced Layoffs

According to a Reuters report, technology giant Meta Platforms (META) was reportedly planning to slash about 20% of its workforce. The company laid off 11,000 of its staff in November 2022, or around 13% of its workforce at the time. 

Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing Meta to ​compete more strongly in the generative AI field. The company has offered huge pay packages with several earning in the hundreds of millions. Meta recently said that it plans to invest $600 billion to build data centers ‌by 2028.

Retail Reaction

Retail sentiment around DELL stock trended in the ‘bullish’ territory amid ‘high’ message volume.

Shares of DELL shares have risen almost 23% so far in 2026.

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