Intel
Corp.'s third-quarter net income fell 6.5 percent, as the world's
largest semiconductor maker sold fewer chips than some analysts
expected and prices for microprocessors declined.
Net income fell to $1.46 billion, or 42 cents a share, from
$1.56 billion, or 44 cents, in the year-earlier period. Excluding
a charge for the purchase of Level One Communications, profit was
$1.9 billion, or 55 cents a share. Intel shares fell as low as 70
after the report. They rose 3/16 to 76 11/16 in regular trading.
Intel said the average price for its microprocessors, the
brains of personal computers, fell from the second quarter. The
company's research and development costs rose 8 percent during
the same period. Sales rose 8.9 percent to $7.33 billion from a
year ago, less than some analysts expected.
``Some people were assuming that prices would be up'
compared with the second quarter, said Jack Geraghty, an analyst
at Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co., who rates Intel ``buy.'
Geraghty expected sales of $7.5 million.
It's the second quarter that Intel's profit has trailed
analyst forecasts. Excluding the acquisition charge, analysts
expected the company to earn 57 cents in the third quarter, the
average estimate from First Call Corp. Some forecasts on the
Internet were for earnings of 60 cents a share. In the second
quarter, Intel earned 51 cents, while the average estimate was
for 53 cents.
Analyst Mark Edelstone at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter was
expecting $7.4 billion in sales for the third quarter. A year
ago, sales were $6.73 billion.
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