Proceeding the August 27 trading session, a premier provider of information-technology and Internet infrastructure products and services to customers worldwide, Dell Inc. (DELL) announced that the company’s profits for the 2Q decreased year-over-year, exacerbated by one-time charges.

For the recent period, Dell recorded net income of $472M, or $0.24 per share, compared to last year’s 2Q profit of $616M, or $0.31 per share, a decrease in earnings year-over-year of more than 23%.

Quarterly revenues slipped as well, falling from $16.43B a year ago to $12.76B, a decline in sales of more than 22%. However, Dell posted a 3% gain over 1Q sales figures.

Brian Gladden, Dell's CFO, commented, "This quarter again demonstrates the discipline with which we are managing our business and further strengthening our balance sheet. The best path for Dell remains one focused on profitable growth, lower costs and smart use of working capital."

Analysts, on average, were looking for the computer manufacturer to post quarterly earnings of $0.23 per share on overall sales of $12.59B.

Looking further inside the company’s report, Dell saw revenues from their large enterprise division slip 32% year-over-year to $3.3B, while their public revenues for the period came in at $3.8B, down 16% from last year’s results.

Sales to small and medium business operations tumbled 29% to $2.8B, as consumer revenues dipped 9% to $2.9B, despite shipments to consumers increased 17% year-over-year.

In an unsettling sign of how bad the recession has affected consumer spending, Dell witnessed 2Q sales of desktop PCs plummet 33% to $3.3B, while their mobility revenues, including laptop PCs, plunged 21% to $3.9B.

A surprise within Dell’s earnings report came by way of a better-than-expected gross profit margin, a positive sign that the company is making more money per dollar of revenue than they had in the previous year.

Dell’s gross profit margin advanced from 17.2% during last year’s 2Q to 18.7%. The current reading also came in higher than the 1Q’s results of 17.6%. Meanwhile, operating margins advanced as well, climbing from 5% a year ago to 5.2%.

Michael Dell, the company's CEO, commented on the company’s increase in profit margins, “We are committed to transparency. We, at the time, saw clear pressure after about eight weeks into the quarter. We talked about component costs. We talked about what we are seeing in pricing. We had already, at that point when we talked to you, initiated actions to try to offset that. We said that during the meeting, and I would just say we are pleased with the execution of the teams. We have tightened pricing. We accelerated some of our (cost) actions.”

The CEO later added, “We've managed discretionary costs. We worked through managing the mix. I think those are some nice accomplishments to get gross margins back where they should be. Going forward, I would just say, as I said in the comments, that we still see some challenges around component costs and I think pricing is going to continue to be to be challenging, and we're working hard to offset those and improve profitability.”

Through the first six months of the year, Dell managed to record net income of $762M, or $0.39 per share, down considerably compared to last year’s earnings of $1.4B, or $0.69 per share. Overall sales during the first half totaled $25.11B, down nearly 23% from $32.51B in the same period a year ago.

Looking ahead to the company’s upcoming 3Q, Dell did not release specific numbers pertaining to the company performance during the period. However, company officials believe that Dell will see seasonal improvement in demand, particularly from consumer and government businesses.

Michael Dell stated, "If current demand trends continue, we expect revenue for the second half of the year to be stronger than the first half."

As the August 27 session concluded, shares of DELL were up $0.98, or 6.7%, ending the day at $15.65 per share. Throughout the next day’s trading, the trend higher continued for Dell, as its shares advanced $0.28, or 1.8%, to end the week at $15.93 per share.

During the past year, shares of Dell have traded as low as $7.84 per share and as high as $26.04 per share. In addition, the company’s stock has also slipped nearly 43% in value during that time, while the company’s primary rival Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has only slipped 5% in market value.