Can Dell Stock Fall 40%? Trefis Team Fri, November 13, 2026 at 12:47 PM EST 4 min read DELL -7.21% ^GSPC -0.47% HPQ +1.66% HPE -3.91% IBM +1.00% Explore stocks on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
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Dell Technologies (DELL) stock has experienced 40% drops before. During three of the seven market shocks since the shares began trading in December 2018, the stock fell 40% or more from its peak in the shock to its eventual low. On November 12, 2026, the shares closed 36.8% below their September high. They lost 26.8% over the past month, compared with a 1.6% dip for the S&P 500, with no earnings report released in that time. So how deep did Dell's falls in past shocks run against the market, and how long did the stock take to get back?
How Deep Did Dell Fall, And For How Long?
Dell's deepest fall in a market shock occurred during the 2020 COVID-19 crash, when the stock lost 46% compared to 34% for the market, measured by the SPY S&P 500 fund. Across all seven shocks, Dell fell 27.1% on average from the first day of each shock to its low, nearly twice the fund's 14.5%. Its largest fall since 2018 spanned from May 2024 to April 2025 and took 59.6% off the stock.
Dell has usually reclaimed its previous highs within months. Measured from the low, the median recovery took 2.7 months, and the stock ultimately returned to its peak after all seven shocks. The longest wait occurred following the shock of summer 2024, when Dell needed 13.8 months to return to its high.
Dell Now Turns More Revenue Into Profit
So far, Dell's fast growth has coincided with a wider operating margin. Revenue reached $151 billion over the twelve months ending July 31, 2026, climbing 49.0% from a year earlier. Operating margin over those months rose to 9.6% from 7.1% a year earlier, reaching the highest twelve-month level across any of the 40 quarter-ends since fiscal Q3 2017.
Gross margin moved the other way, slipping to 19.8% from 21.1% over the same months. Management credits scale for the wider operating margin, and said operating expenses, on an adjusted basis, fell to 8.5% of revenue in fiscal Q2 2027.
The Infrastructure Solutions Group, which houses Dell's servers and storage, generated $60.8 billion in fiscal 2026, an increase of 39.5%. This growth pushed the unit ahead of the Client Solutions Group, the PC business, which had been the larger of the two a year earlier. Total debt expanded alongside the business operations, reaching $34.5 billion at the end of July 2026, up from $28.7 billion a year earlier.
Dell Faces Parts Shortages And Thinner PC Profit
Dell cannot secure all the parts its customers want, management said on the September 1, 2026 call. The company identified DRAM, followed by NAND, as the tightest constraints, alongside spotty CPU shortages. Traditional server and networking revenue rose 122% to $10.5 billion in fiscal Q2 2027, and management said demand still outpaced supply. Management said Dell's input costs keep going up, and that part of the server growth came from price increases.
PCs are under pressure too, though Client Solutions Group revenue rose 20% to $15 billion in fiscal Q2 2027. Management said the PC market was showing signs of softening in the second half, and that more cost-sensitive customers are extending their upgrade cycles. It expects the Client Solutions Group's operating income rate to moderate to roughly 6% in fiscal Q3 2027.
Dell has widened its operating margin through the past year, while its supply of DRAM and other parts, along with the cost of those components, remains less settled. Dell is scheduled to report its fiscal Q3 2027 results on November 24, 2026, and revenue against management's $49 billion guide is the measure to watch.
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