Intel Results Not as Bad as Previously Feared

Intel reported its first-quarter results on Tuesday as $0.41 in earnings per share (EPS) on $12.8 billion in revenue. That compared to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates of $0.41 in EPS on $12.90 billion in revenue. The first quarter of the previous year had $0.38 in EPS and $12.76 billion in revenue.

Intel does a whopping 83% of sales to foreign customers and has been hurt by the strong dollar. Weaker PC sales hurt the company as well. Hence, the company’s recent earnings warning. Like many firms, Merrill Lynch analysts are seeing value in the stock after a pretty hard share pricing beat-down. They also see the other areas starting to contribute a meaningful impact to revenues and helping to move the legendary Silicon Valley chip giant away from its crushing PC dependence.

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In terms of Intel’s outlook for the next quarter, the company expects revenue to come in at $13.2 billion, plus or minus $500 million, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.51 billion. For the full year, revenue is expected to remain approximately flat, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.69 billion and 2014’s revenue of $55.87 billion.

Intel reported its segments compared to the same quarter in the previous year as:

• Client Computing Group revenue was down 8% to $7.4 billion.
• Data Center Group revenue was up 19% to $3.7 billion.
• Internet of Things Group revenue was up 11% to $533 million.
• Software and services operating segments revenue was down 3% to $534 million.

Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, said:

Year-over-year revenues were flat, with double-digit revenue growth in the data center, IoT and memory businesses offsetting lower than expected demand for business desktop PCs. These results reinforce the importance of continuing to execute our growth strategy.

Shares of Intel closed Tuesday down 0.8% at $31.47. After the earnings report was released, shares were up 3% at $32.48 in after-hours trading. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $34.61 and a 52-week trading range of $25.74 to $37.90.

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