Dive Brief:
- CDW's net sales grew 4% overall for its third quarter ended September 30. Services helped fuel that growth, with sales expanding 9% year over year. Within the services category, professional and managed services increased 14% year over year. Chris Leahy, chair and CEO at CDW, called services a "standout" performer during the quarter. She provided a company update during CDW's Nov. 4 earnings call.
- CDW's client device sales grew 7% quarter-over-quarter. Leahy cited the Windows 10 end-of-life transition as a factor driving client device sales, which include notebooks, mobile devices and desktops. Growth in CDW's software and networking hardware categories also contributed to the company's quarterly sales increase.
- As AI adoption gains momentum in IT services, CDW is pursuing a dual track, providing customers with the technology while using it in-house. The company is embedding AI into is operations, according to Leahy, who cited product-discovery chatbots deployed on CDW’s website and the use of agentic automation to streamline pre-sales qualifications.
Dive Insight:
While CDW boosted quarterly sales, the company acknowledged a complex business climate. CDW's 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission cited a challenging economic environment, including "evolving global trade policies and geopolitical conditions."
The federal government shutdown is another factor to consider.
"Clearly, we are operating under a lot of unknowns, including the duration of the government shutdown, which could not only impact federal results but could have an impact on other end markets, including healthcare and education," Leahy said.
Al Miralles, CFO at CDW, who also spoke during the earnings call, said the company has navigated the complex environment with an "appropriate level of prudence" thus far in 2025 and will continue to do so. The company's outlook for the remainder of the year, which forecasts low single-digit growth for the IT market, assumes "continued frictional impact" in the government and education markets, as well as the potential for funding shortfalls among healthcare customers.
Leahy said the current market situation, compared with other challenging periods, differs historically in the degree of volatility and unpredictability.
"When I think about the past year, in particular, the curveballs that have come at every organization rapidly, and without necessarily a lot of time to adjust, have had technology buyers, business owners, schools, all institutions adjusting to the volatility and, therefore, not having the certainty and predictability to invest," she noted.
Leaders in those organizations are becoming accustomed to the unpredictability and are beginning to move forward with mission-critical needs, Leahy said.
