Dell Confident In Long-Term Prospects, Will Continue Buying Back Shares

Dell (DELL) Chief Executive Michael Dell is confident in his company�s long-term prospects and says it will continue to buy back its stock.

�I think we will continue to grow our earnings,� says Dell on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum taking place in Davos, Switzerland.

�I have been doing this for 28 years and, certainly, if you look out five to 10 years, there is a lot to be optimistic about.�

Asked about the company�s share price, he says: �We will continue to buy back our stock.� The company isn�t immune from the effects of the euro-zone debt crisis, but Dell says he and other CEOs in the U.S. aren�t dwelling on them.

�When I talk to my colleagues in American businesses, they are pretty optimistic,� he says.

�There are pockets of weakness and challenges here and there. But at the end of the day, we have to (manage) those parts of the business that we can control.�

And he isn�t worried about competitors, either. �In the last year we have grown our earnings per share by 60%, so there is a way to win even when there is competition,� he says.

The company, which operates in 180 countries, isn�t �really a PC company anymore,� Dell says. Its operations include enterprise solution, data centers and IT services.

�We are in the business of productivity and that is a business growing all over the world,� he says. �So if you are in health care, if you are in education, if you are in energy, if you are in manufacturing, if you are in retail, you need technology to grow and expand your business.�

He sees opportunities for the company in cloud computing, too: �That data has to be stored, managed and secured and those are very much core business for us,� Dell says.

His assessment of the company�s future: �We�ll be fine.�

Dell shares today are down 6 cents at $16.73.