Intel raised its guidance to a base point of $13.7 billion, plus or minus $300 million, versus a prior base of $13.0 billion, plus or minus $500 million. The company said that stronger than expected demand for PCs for business was the culprit. Well this has to be good news for the likes of Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and Dell. If you run a business, and certainly an enterprise business, chances are high that you use Microsoft’s Windows and Office programs and bought either Dell or HP for PCs.
Satya Nadella has to have let out a cheer inside the Microsoft offices today. Microsoft’s stock closed down 0.7% at $40.58, but Microsoft shares were back up at $40.99 in the after-hours session. Its prior 52-week high is $41.66.
Hewlett-Packard shares closed up 0.4% at $33.39 after Goldman Sachs admitted that it was too negative and raised HP’s rating up to Neutral from Sell. HP shares were up another 0.7% at $33.39 in the after-hours session.
The big question is whether this is sustainable. After jettisoning support for Windows XP, we would of course want to know if Intel’s new orders for business PC components were tied to that or if it is just raw processing demand.
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Intel shares were up only three cents at $27.96 on Thursday, but Intel is set up for a solid Friday on the analyst upgrade brigade as the stock’s reaction was up 5% $29.40 in the after-hours session.
Many investors might try to discount this news, but they should not. If business demand for PCs is higher, then it could trickle all the way down the PC component supply chain.
Meg Whitman, Satya Nadella, and Michael Dell must all be feeling at least a little bit better than they did prior to the market close on Thursday.
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