Computer makers Dell Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co posted higher profits, but both companies’ shares drifted lower as doubts remained over the strength of the revival in technology spending.

Dell beat Wall Street’s profit and revenue estimates in the second quarter and said it expected a continued pick-up in demand for PCs from corporate customers for the next several quarters.

Larger rival Hewlett-Packard Co — posting its first quarterly report since the surprise ouster of CEO Mark Hurd — said earnings rose 6 percent as expected, helped by strength in servers and personal computers.

Both companies were expected to face questions later Thursday on the strength of the recovery in corporate and consumer spending on technology, in light of Cisco Systems Inc CEO John Chambers’ warning about “unusual uncertainty” in the global economy.

“We still remain constructive on the tech sector … but it’s definitely slower compared to what our prior view was a couple months ago, which obviously is disappointing,” said Collins Stewart analyst Louis Miscioscia.

“The consumer has definitely slowed. We expect second-half results will be decently strong for tech, but not as strong as our prior view.”

Gross profit margin at Dell — which relies on its enterprise and government customers for about four-fifths of revenue — lagged Wall Street’s expectations.

Dell said its adjusted gross profit margin was 17.2 percent in the quarter, below the 17.7 percent expected.

Analysts said fears persisted about the strength of any recovery in consumer spending, as growth moderates in Europe and China as well as in the United States.

On the corporate side, Dell Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden said the refresh cycle was proceeding as expected, adding that he expects component costs to start to come down in the fiscal third and fourth quarters.

Dell said it expected demand for PCs among corporate customers to continue for the “next several” quarters. It said it expects “seasonal improvements” in the third quarter, thanks to sales to the federal government and business customers, with a resulting “pick-up in the low single digits.”

“This is a pretty stretched-out cycle and we think it’ll continue for several quarters,” he said in an interview with Reuters. For the fiscal second quarter, “commercial growth was really the key for us, servers, networking systems, storage, services. That was up about 43 percent.”

Apart from questions about the strength of the global tech recovery, HP executives are also likely to field queries on its CEO search, officially launched Wednesday and encompassing both internal and external candidates.

HP, the world’s largest technology company by revenue, forced Hurd out on Aug. 6 for expense account irregularities related to a female contractor. Hurd, CEO since 2005, has been credited with reviving the company’s fortunes.

HP shares have fallen about 12 percent since Hurd left. The stock closed at $40.76 on the New York Stock Exchange, and dropped to $40.50 after hours.

Shares of Round Rock, Texas-based Dell, which are down roughly 31 percent since April, fell 2.6 percent to $11.73 in extended trading.