News
Intel 1Q Profit Surges 19 Percent
The company said it earned $1.61 billion, or 27 cents per share, in the first three months of the year.
(San Jose, Calif.) After enduring a brutal year of plunging profits and
massive job cuts, Intel Corp.'s first-quarter profit surge and sunnier
financial forecast has analysts optimistic that the chipmaker's painful
turnaround is working.
The company said it earned $1.61 billion, or 27 cents per share, in the
first three months of the year. That's a 19 percent jump from the company's
net income of $1.36 billion, or 23 cents per share, in the same period
last year.
Intel said revenue in the quarter was $8.85 billion, down slightly from
last year's $8.94 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were
expecting the company to earn, on average, 22 cents per share on nearly
$9 billion in revenue.
In a sign of Intel's confidence in its ability to wring more profits
from its processors, the company raised its closely watched gross profit
margin forecast for 2007 to about 51 percent of revenues, about the same
as last year's results but nearly 9 percentage points below 2005 levels.
Analysts said Intel will not likely reach its lofty profit levels of several
years ago because of increased competition from Advanced Micro Devices
Inc.
Before the results were released Tuesday, Intel shares gained 29 cents,
or 1.4 percent, to close at $20.98 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock
gained another 43 cents, or about 2 percent, in after-hours trading.
Santa Clara-based Intel, the world's largest semiconductor company, said
it benefited from its rapid shift to a new chip-making process and a big
tax windfall that added $300 million, or 5 cents per share, back into
the company's coffers.
Lower production costs helped the company withstand another round in
a fierce price battle with Sunnyvale-based AMD. AMD siphoned off about
4 percent of the overall processor market from Intel in 2006, but the
company's growth appears to be slowing because of a strong new product
lineup from Intel.
Intel has been better able to absorb the price cuts because of its size
advantage -- its market value is 16 times that of AMD's. Intel also completed
its wide-ranging restructuring ahead of schedule in the first quarter,
shrinking the company's work force by 10 percent to 92,000 workers and
positioning itself for major cost savings.
While there is still some concern about Intel's lower profit margin and
revenue forecast for the second quarter, Doug Freedman, an analyst with
American Technology Research, said the improved cost controls and higher
full-year forecast are helping investors warm up to the stock again.
Intel also appears to have regained its competitive footing against AMD,
while in an interesting turnabout borrowing heavily from some of AMD's
technology ideas, Freedman said.
"AMD's roadmap is what Intel's executing -- that's what I think
is taking place now," he said. "Where does that leave AMD? It
leaves Intel in the driver's seat. They're executing well, and it seems
like Intel feels like they've regained the upper hand. That means the
price battle is probably nearing the end."
Sales were down across all of Intel's major divisions, and average selling
prices were lower in the lucrative market for corporate server processors.
Prices for desktop and mobile computer processors were nearly flat.
However, Intel was able to offset the slumping sales with lower manufacturing
costs because of its shift to a more advanced manufacturing technology.
Intel had about a year's head-start over AMD in producing chips using
so-called 65-nanometer technology, which shrinks the width of a chip's
circuitry to 65 billionths of a meter. The shift allows companies to squeeze
more transistors onto the same slice of silicon, boosting performance
while lowering manufacturing costs. Both companies are now shifting to
45-nanometer technology.
"The market remains competitive, but we think we're starting to
see the benefit of the new products we rolled out last year," Andy
Bryant, Intel's chief financial officer, said in an interview with The
Associated Press. "As we bring better and better products to the
marketplace, it gives us the ability to compete on something more than
price."
While Intel appears to be on the upswing, AMD has slashed its revenue
forecast. Analysts expect the company to post a loss of 48 cents per share
when it reports its own first-quarter results Thursday.
Analysts are concerned about AMD's ability to pay for its $5.6 billion
acquisition of graphics chip maker ATI Technologies Inc. and make the
costly transition to the new chip-making process.
AMD's stock price has plunged 55 percent from last year, wiping out more
than $7 billion in shareholder wealth. Meanwhile, Intel investors have
profited, with Intel shares climbing 9 percent over last year and adding
about $8 billion to the company's market value.
"Intel's still doing exceptionally well financially -- they've certainly
turned the corner from where they were behind the eight ball," said
Jim McGregor, director of semiconductors and enabling technologies research
at In-Stat. "They've got AMD on the ropes. AMD purchasing ATI definitely
put their financial situation in jeopardy, and Intel can definitely withstand
a lot more -- they've got a boatload of cash and higher margins, typically.
But the big question is, can these profit margins hold up?"