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FORTUNE -- Shares of Dell have gotten a bump lately on speculation that founder Michael Dell may take the company private. But they're still a far cry from their peak when the computer giant was once the world's leading PC maker.
We talked to two stock watchers, a bull and a bear, about the future of Dell (DELL, Fortune 500) in a world that's moving from the desktop to to the laptop to the palm of your hand.
Bull: Ronnie Moas, founder, Standpoint Research
We recommended the stock when it was about $12 a share and set a target of $18. The valuation was out of whack: 0.5 times revenue, on a per-share basis. Compare that with Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500), which is trading at five times revenue. The stock has been rising partly on rumors that Michael Dell might take the company private. Now it's about $15. Meanwhile, businesses are starting to invest, and Dell gets the bulk of its revenue from businesses and government. Dell gets only 18% of its revenue from the consumer. A weak U.S. dollar helps. It's good for exports, and Dell gets nearly half of its revenue abroad. Finally, it doesn't have a lot of debt -- it's sitting on $12 billion in cash -- and Dell has increased the number of retail locations it's selling out of from 40,000 to 66,000. That can't be a bad thing.
Bear: Tom Smith, analyst, Standard & Poors
Short term, Dell should improve. That's cyclical -- hardware sales tend to track GDP. Longer term, it's clinging too tightly to the PC. Maybe Dell can compete by making netbooks, tablets, and smartphones. That's where the consumer market is heading. But Apple dominates the high end. On the low end, there's competition from Acer, Asustek, and Lenovo. Dell is expanding retail sales, but it has to. You need big volume in PCs because profit margins are small. Can you grow faster than competitors by selling at Best Buy (BBY, Fortune 500) too? I doubt Dell can copy Apple's success with company-owned stores. Unlike Dell, Apple controls the customer experience -- hardware, operating system, and online sales of music and apps. A better comparison is Gateway, which tried stores and failed. 
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