Intel Profit Tops Estimate

(RTTNews) - Intel Corp. (INTC) said Tuesday after the markets closed that its first quarter profit fell 5% from last year, hurt mainly by higher income tax expenses even as revenue grew slightly.

The company's quarterly earnings per share came in above analysts' expectations, but its quarterly revenue fell shy of analysts' forecast.

"In the first quarter we saw solid growth in the data center, signs of improvement in the PC business, and we shipped 5 million tablet processors, making strong progress on our goal of 40 million tablets for 2014," said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich.

Intel shares are currently gaining 1.98% in after hours trading after closing the day's regular trading session at $26.77, up 21 cents. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $21.42 to $27.12.

The world's biggest chipmaker reported net income for the first quarter of $1.95 billion or $0.38 per share, compared to $2.05 billion or $0.40 per share for the year-ago quarter.

On average, 39 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.37 per share for the first quarter.

Gross margin for the quarter improved to 59.7% from 56.2% a year ago.

Revenue for the first quarter edged up 1.4% to $12.76 billion from $12.58 billion in the same quarter last year. Thirty-six analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $12.81 billion for the first quarter.

PC Client Group revenue for the first quarter fell 1% year-over-year to $7.9 billion. This group caters to desktops, notebooks, wireless and wired connectivity products as well as home gateway and set-top boxes.

Intel is the world's largest supplier of microprocessors, the brains of personal computers, with roughly 80% of the global market share.

Last week, market research firm Gartner, Inc. (IT) said worldwide PC shipments fell 1.7% year-over-year to 76.6 million units in the first quarter of 2014. This marks the eighth consecutive quarter of shipment decline, but less severe than the past seven quarters.

Data Center Group revenue for the quarter rose 11% year-over-year to $3.1 billion. This group caters to the server and storage markets.

Internet of Things Group revenue for the first quarter surged 32% from a year earlier to $482 million, while Mobile and Communications Group revenue fell 61% to $156 million.

Software and services revenue for the first quarter rose 6% from last year to $553 million.

Looking forward, the company forecasts second quarter revenue of $13.0 billion, plus or minus $500 million. Analysts currently expect the company to post revenue of $12.96 billion for the second quarter.

Gross margin for the second quarter is expected to be 63%, plus or minus a couple of percentage points.

The company continues to expect full year 2014 revenue to be approximately flat with full year 2013 revenue of $52.71 billion. Analysts currently expect the company to post revenue of $53.15 billion for the full year 2014.

Full year 2014 gross margin is now expected to be 61%, plus or minus a few percentage points, 1 percentage point higher than the company's prior expectations.