Intel Beats the Street Again
Proving once again that analysts don’t know everything, chip maker Intel beat the consensus view of Wall Street once again. It just reported per-share earnings of 59 cents and revenue of $13.1 billion versus the Street’s 51 cents and $12.8 billion.
For next quarter, Intel said it sees revenue of $14 billion, plus or minus $500 million, which is higher than the consensus of $13.5 billion. It also said it sees its gross margin in that quarter coming in at 64 percent, plus or minus a couple percentage points.
Intel shares traded lower during the regular trading session, closing at $22.99 a share, down seven cents from Tuesday’s close.
More as I go through the numbers.
Update: Here are some quick bullet points from Intel’s announcement:
- Revenue was a record at $13.1 billion, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of record-setting sales at Intel.
- Gross margins were 62 percent, down 5.5 percent from the year-ago quarter.
- EPS at 59 cents a share is up 16 percent year-over-year.
- Net income was $3.2 billion, up by $290 million or 10 percent year-over-year.
- Sales in the PC client group were up 11 percent year-over-year. (I can almost hear CEO Paul Otellini say, “Take that, you doubters at IDC and Gartner,” at this number.)
- Data center revenue up 15 percent.
- Equity investments amounted to a $4 million loss, versus a $50 million gain that had been expected.
- Intel generated $4 billion in cash from operations in the quarter, and used $2 billion to repurchase 93 shares of stock.
- The company expects to spend a combined $4.3 billion on research, development and marketing, and general and administrative functions in the quarter.
- McAfee — the software company Intel acquired last year — and the wireless chip division it acquired from Infineon, combined to add $1 billion to overall revenue.
Here’s a statement from Otellini: “Strong corporate demand for our most advanced technology, the surge of mobile devices and Internet traffic fueling data center growth, and the rapid rise of computing in emerging markets drove record results. Intel’s 23 percent revenue growth in the first half and our increasing confidence in the second half of 2011 position us to grow annual revenue in the mid-20 percent range.”
