By MATT SLAGLE, AP Technology Writer

DALLAS - Dell Inc. said Thursday that earnings fell slightly in preliminary first-quarter results, and the computer maker planned to lay off more than 8,000 employees over the next year as part of an ongoing restructuring.

Dell said it earned $759 million, or 34 cents per share, in the three months ended May 4. That compared with $762 million, or 33 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

First-quarter sales rose nearly 1 percent from the year ago period to $14.6 billion.

Analysts, on average, expected earnings of 26 cents per share on sales $13.95 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Financial.

Dell shares climbed more than 5 percent after the results were released.

In what has become a trend in recent quarters, Dell issued the financial results as a news release and didn’t offer any follow-up conference calls with analysts or reporters. The company didn’t provide year-ago figures in its report.

Round Rock-based Dell’s earnings statements from the second, third and fourth quarters also remain preliminary and have yet to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission because of an ongoing federal accounting probe that found numerous errors, evidence of misconduct and financial control deficiencies.

Thursday’s report included a charge of $46 million, or 2 cents per share, for costs related to the investigation.

Dell also hasn’t filed its annual report for the fiscal year ended Feb. 2.

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