Intel Misses Earnings By A Penny

Chipmaker Intel fell a penny short of the consensus expectation for its first quarter profit, posting a net of 26 cents per share.

The shortfall included a one-time charge of about 1.7 cents per share to take care of a previously announced legal settlement with one-time rival Intergraph.

Overall, Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., reported sales of $8.1 billion -- which was also slightly short of the $8.17 billion consensus -- and a profit of $1.7 billion for the quarter ended March 27.

That compared with sales of $6.75 billion and a profit of $915 million for the same quarter in 2003.

"Intel's first quarter results showed healthy growth in both revenue and earnings compared to a year ago, led by improvement in worldwide IT spending," said Intel CEO Craig Barrett in a prepared statement."We ramped our 90 nm process into high volume with the launch of several new desktop processors, and plan to substantially increase shipments in the second quarter including our first mobile and server products," Barrett said. "The combination of these products plus new processors and platform innovations coming over the course of this year positions us well for continued growth."

Looking ahead to second quarter numbers, Intel said it expected its revenue to fall within a range of $7.6 billion and $8.2 billion. The Wall Street consensus had indicated an expectation of $8.09 billion.

Intel executives were set to explain their results and outlook in more detail during an afternoon conference call with financial analysts.

Article appears courtesy of CRN.