Barclays Downgrades Dell and HPE to Equal Weight Citing Lack of Meaningful Enterprise AI Spending Turn

Barclays cut Dell Technologies from Overweight to Equal Weight on October 14, alongside HPE and NetApp, because enterprise spending on AI has not reached a meaningful turning point. Barclays analyst Tim Long stated that strong enterprise revenues are more a function of global memory costs than a shift to enterprise AI, noting that businesses typically allocate only 5% of IT budgets to AI. The bank lowered Dell's price target to $574 from $603, and HPE's target to $77 from $83. Dell's third-quarter revenue guidance is $49 billion, an 81% year-over-year increase.