Dell, HP, Intuit: Tech Premarket

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Dell(DELL) shares tanked in pre-market trading on Wednesday as investors digested the company's second-quarter results and weak guidance.

On Tuesday the Round Rock, Texas-based company reported revenue of $14.5 billion, down from $15.7 billion in the same period last year, and below analysts' forecast of $14.64 billion.

Excluding items, Dell earned 50 cents a share, compared to 54 cents a share in the prior year's quarter. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were looking for earnings of 45 cents a share.

With PC sales under pressure, Dell expects its third-quarter revenue to slip between 2% and 5% sequentially. Excluding items, the HP(HPQ) rival also adjusted its full-year earnings guidance to $1.70 a share, which includes a 2- to 3-cent dilutive impact from Dell's pending acquisition of Quest Software(QSFT) . Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were looking for earnings of $1.90 a share.

Dell shares plunged 5.35% to $11.68 in pre-market trading. The no.2 PC maker was also the most active pre-market Nasdaq stock on share volume of 564,161.

The Dell numbers also weighed heavily on shares of no. 1 PC maker HP, which reports its third-quarter results after market close. HP shares were down 2.41% to $19.45 before market open.

Intuit(INTU) shares crept up 0.93% $59.50 after the tax preparation and accounting software specialist's fourth-quarter results, released after market close on Tuesday.

The TurboTax and QuickBooks maker reported earnings of 3 cents a share and revenue of $651 million. Analysts were looking for earnings of 6 cents a share on revenue of $652.5 million.

TheStreet will be live-blogging HP's third-quarter results and conference call, starting at 3.45 p.m. ET:

--Written by James Rogers in New York.