Thread: Intel earnings jump, beat Wall Street estimates $2.96BILLION

Intel earnings jump, beat Wall Street estimates

10/12/2010
By Jordan Robertson, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Intel's third-quarter results showed Wall Street something that many anxious investors were itching to see: a sign that economic edginess hasn't ruined consumers' appetite for new PCs as much as originally feared going into the critical holiday shopping season.

Intel (INTC) said Tuesday that its net income leaped 59% and sales rose 18%, both topping analysts' expectations.

Those expectations had been tampered down in August when Intel cut its guidance, blaming weak consumer PC demand that has rippled across the computer industry. Thus, the jump that the technology-industry bellwether reported Tuesday would have been higher if the economy hadn't dampened back-to-school spending, one of the electronics world's most important shopping seasons.

Still, investors sent Intel shares up slightly in extended trading.

Intel said after the market closed Tuesday that it earned $2.96 billion, or 52 cents a share, compared with $1.86 billion, or 33 cents a share, a year ago. Analysts expected 50 cents a share, according to a Thomson Reuters survey.

Revenue rose 18% to $11.10 billion, from $9.39 billion. Analysts expected $10.99 billion.

Job-market jitters have caused shoppers to hang on to more of their money, turning back-to-school into a bust for many PC makers and their suppliers. The focus now is on the industry's other make-or-break moment: the holiday shopping season.

Many analysts are predicting this winter will be healthier than the fall. Intel's fourth-quarter forecast seems to support that. Intel is predicting revenue of $11.0 billion to $11.8 billion in the fourth quarter. Analysts were expecting $11.3 billion.

CEO Paul Otellini said Intel continues to see "healthy worldwide demand for computing products of all types." As the world's biggest maker of microprocessors, the "brains" of PCs, Intel is a proxy for the overall PC market. The company's chief financial officer, Stacy Smith, said in an interview that Intel expects the consumer PC market to continue growing in the fourth quarter, but at a slower pace than in the first half of the year.

Shares of Intel increased 22 cents to $19.99 in extended trading. Before the release of results, it closed up 21 cents, or 1.1%, at $19.77.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies ... ntel_N.htm

Intel posts 3 billion dollar quarterly net profit

39 mins ago

NEW YORK (AFP) – US computer chip giant Intel posted a quarterly net profit of nearly three billion dollars on Tuesday and record revenue of more than 11 billion dollars.

Earnings per share of 52 cents were slightly better than the 50 cents expected by Wall Street analysts.

Revenue rose 18 percent during the quarter ending September 25 to 11.1 billion dollars, roughly what the company forecast in August when it slashed its third quarter revenue outlook due to lower demand for computers.

Intel, the world's biggest manufacturer of computer chips, said it expected revenue of 11 billion to 11.8 billion dollars during the current quarter.

Intel shares were up 0.91 percent at 19.95 dollars in after-hours electronic trading.

"Intel's third-quarter results set all-time records for revenue and operating income," Intel president and chief executive Paul Otellini said.

"These results were driven by solid demand from corporate customers, sales of our leadership products and continued growth in emerging markets," Otellini said in a statement.

"Looking forward, we continue to see healthy worldwide demand for computing products of all types and are particularly excited about our next-generation processor, codenamed Sandy Bridge, and the many new designs around our Intel Atom processors," he said.

In a conference call with financial analysts, Otellini said Sandy Bridge represented the "largest increase in computing performance in our history."

"Early demand is much higher than anticipated," he said.

Otellini also said he did not expect tablet computers such as Apple's iPad and upcoming devices running Google's Android platform to significantly impact personal computer sales.

"Sure, at the margins they probably will, we saw the same things with netbooks," he said.

"But three years later, both the PC and netbook markets have grown," the Intel chief said. "In the end, the tablet category will be additive to our bottom line and not take away from it

"We think that tablets are exciting and we fully welcome their arrival," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101013/ts ... 1013022015