Intel Results Edge Past Estimates

(RTTNews) - Intel Corp. (INTC) said Tuesday after the markets closed that its third quarter profit rose 12% from last year, helped by higher revenue and improved margins.

The company's quarterly earnings per share also edged past Wall Street expectations as did its quarterly revenue.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said, "We achieved our best-ever revenue and strong profits in the third quarter. There is more to do, but our results give us confidence that we're successfully executing to our strategy of extending our products across a broad range of exciting new markets."

Intel shares are currently gaining 1.59% in after hours trading after closing the day's regular trading session at $32.14, up 67 cents or 2.13%. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $23.03 to $35.56.

The world's biggest chipmaker reported net income for the third quarter of $3.3 billion or $0.66 per share, compared to $3.0 billion or $0.58 per share for the year-ago quarter.

On average, 39 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.65 per share for the third quarter.

Gross margin for the quarter improved to 65.0% from 62.4% a year earlier.

Revenue for the third quarter rose 8% to $14.55 million from $13.48 billion in the same quarter last year. Thirty-nine analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $14.45 billion for the third quarter.

PC Client Group revenue for the third quarter increased 9% year-over-year to $9.2 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 0.5% year-over-year to 79.4 million units in the third quarter of 2014.

Data Center Group revenue for the quarter rose 16% year-over-year to $3.7 billion. This group caters to the server and storage markets.

Internet of Things Group revenue for the third quarter surged 14% from a year earlier to $530 million, while Mobile and Communications Group revenue dropped 100% to $1 million.

Software and services revenue for the third quarter grew 2% from last year to $558 million.

Looking forward, the company forecasts fourth quarter revenue of $14.7 billion, plus or minus $500 million. Analysts currently expect the company to post revenue of $14.49 billion for the fourth quarter.

Gross margin for the fourth quarter is expected to be 64%, plus or minus a couple of percentage points.