Intel reports sales, earnings that top Wall Street forecasts.

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Intel beats estimates

World's largest chipmaker reports sales, profits that top forecasts; stock rallies after-hours

April 19, 2005: 4:34 PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp., the world's largest chip maker, Tuesday reported a rise in quarterly profit as revenue reached the second-highest level in the company's history, helped by strong demand for its Centrino notebook computer chips.

The news sent Intel (Research) stock up 5.6 percent in after-hours trading after a 1.9 percent rise on Nasdaq ahead of the report.

Net income in the first quarter ended April 2 rose to $2.2 billion, or 34 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $1.7 billion, or 26 cents a share. Sales rose to $9.4 billion from $8.1 billion, slightly below the all-time company record of $9.6 billion set in the fourth quarter of 2004.

The results from the Santa Clara, California-based company topped the average Wall Street expectation of a profit of 31 cents a share on sales of $9.31 billion, according to a poll of analysts by Reuters Estimates.

Intel said it expected revenue in the second quarter to be in a range of $8.6 billion to $9.2 billion, in line with the average analyst expectation of $8.9 billion. Gross profit margin, the percentage of sales left over after accounting for production costs, was forecast to be about 56 percent, plus or minus a couple of points.

The first-quarter report came in at the top end of an upbeat financial forecast Intel gave on March 10. At the time, Chief Financial Officer Andy Bryant bumped up the company's revenue and profitability targets after Intel's manufacturing plants scrambled to meet demand for notebook computer chips.

Helped by the popularity of its Centrino brand of chips for notebook PCs, Intel's share of the market for PC microprocessors rose by about 1 percentage point last year to 81.5 percent, while rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. saw its share slip by about a point to around 16 percent.

At the same time, the chip maker faces several challenges, including AMD's Opteron chip for business computers, a recent reorganization of the company, and an upcoming transition to a new chief executive officer.

fonte:cnnfn