Intel Net Doubles as Sales Grow
Tuesday July 15, 4:34 pm ET
biz.yahoo.com
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - News) on Tuesday said second-quarter earnings doubled from a year ago on strong sales of its Pentium and other microprocessors that serve as the brains for personal computers.
Shares of Intel rose in after-hours trading.
The world's largest semiconductor maker posted net income of $896 million, or 14 cents a share, up from $446 million, or 7 cents a share, a year ago.
Revenue was $6.8 billion, compared to $6.32 billion a year earlier, the Santa Clara, California-based company said.
Intel's guidance had been for revenue of between $6.6 billion and $6.8 billion for the second quarter, which due to seasonal factors tends to be flat to a few percentage points down from the prior quarter's revenue.
Analysts had, on average, expected the company to post earnings per share of 13 cents on revenue of $6.72 billion, according to Reuters Research, a unit of Reuters Group Plc.
For the third quarter, Intel forecast revenue of $6.9 billion to $7.5 billion.
The company also raised its 2003 research and development spending target to about $4.2 billion from $4.0 billion and said it expects a loss of $25 million in equity investments and interest.
Intel left unchanged its 2003 capital spending target of $3.5 billion to $3.9 billion, which is down 17 percent to 25 percent from last year's $4.7 billion.
Intel's capital spending plans are also considered an indicator of demand for tools to build and test microchips.
As the world's largest maker of semiconductors, Intel is considered a bellwether for broader technology investment. The chip industry is forecasting global growth of 10 percent this year but investors have sent shares sharply higher in anticipation of improved margins and better results.
Shares of Intel closed at $24.10 on the Nasdaq, up 8 cents on the day. They were trading at $24.80 in after-hours trade.
Since the beginning of the year, they have risen about 44 percent while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has risen about 30 percent, outperforming both the Nasdaq Composite Index and the S&P Index.
The highlighted area concerning capex was highlighted by me. INTC beating estimates and raising guidance seems to be something that is positively outweighing the actual lack of change in capex guidance in after hours trading for semi equipment stocks.
AMAT is trading at 19.15!
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