A good read on Intel's report:
dailynews.yahoo.com
A couple of highlights:
``Unit demand appeared to be better than extremely strong,' said Drew Peck, an SG Cowen & Co analyst. ``But in the battle between unit demand and lower prices, lower prices won. It was a modest disappointment in the earnings results, despite the fact that revenues were in line with expectations.'
Indeed, Intel said shipments of microprocessors, chipsets, and flash memory chips all grew substantially to new records during the quarter. Craig Barrett, Intel's chief executive, said that Intel's core microprocessor business was ``solid.'
But total average selling prices were down in the third quarter from the second quarter. The company was not more specific about the percentage of decline.
Intel also said it had some delays in moving products to a new manufacturing process technology, called 0.18 micron, which makes the linewidth of chip transistors even smaller.
When asked by analysts if Intel would have made its Wall Street's estimates, if it has not had problems with the 0.18 micron process, Bryant simply answered, ``Yes.'
The company also forecast a ``seasonally strong' fourth quarter, comments which could help ease investor worries. In recent weeks, investors have been nervous that the recent Taiwanese earthquake would have a negative impact on semiconductor makers and the personal computer industry.
"It was a little disappointing, but I think their problems are one time in nature,' said Mark Edelstone, a Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst. ``The outlook is better than expected.'
Regardless of what the market does to Intel and the technology sector due to the report, Intel remains one of a gorilla gamer's core holdings. Had the .18 micron process delay problems not been encountered, the estimates would have been met. As the analyst says above, one has to believe it is simply a short term blip.
What's everyone else's read on Intel?
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