Intel Profit Misses Estimate

(RTTNews) - Intel Corp. (INTC) said Thursday after the markets closed that its fourth quarter profit rose 6% from last year, as revenue increased and gross margin improved despite a slump in the PC market.

However, the company's quarterly earnings per share missed analysts' consensus estimate by a penny, while its quarterly revenue managed to beat analysts' forecast.

"We had a solid fourth quarter with signs of stabilization in the PC segment and financial growth from a year ago," said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich.

Intel shares are currently losing 2.98% in after hours trading after closing the day's regular trading session at $26.54, down 13 cents. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $20.10 to $27.12.

The world's biggest chipmaker reported net income for the fourth quarter of $2.6 billion or $0.51 per share, compared to $2.5 billion or $0.48 per share for the year-ago quarter.

On average, 40 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.52 per share for the fourth quarter.

Gross margin for the quarter improved to 62.0% from 58.0% a year ago.

Santa Clara, California-based Intel said revenue for the fourth quarter rose 3% to $13.83 billion from $13.48 billion in the same quarter last year. Forty analysts analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $13.72 billion for the fourth quarter.

PC client group revenue for the fourth quarter remained flat with last year at $8.6 billion. This group caters to desktops, notebooks, and wireless connectivity products.

Intel is the world's largest supplier of microprocessors, the brains of personal computers, with roughly 80% of the global market share.

Earlier this month, market research firm Gartner, Inc. (IT) said worldwide PC shipments fell 6.9% year-over-year to 82.6 million units in the fourth quarter of 2013. This marks the seventh consecutive quarter of shipment decline.

Data center group revenue for the quarter rose 8% from last year to $3.0 billion. This group caters to the server and storage markets.

Other Intel Architecture Group revenue for the quarter climbed 9% to $1.1 billion. This group caters to the smartphone, tablet, netbook and mobile communication markets.

Software and services group revenue grew 7% to $683 million in the fourth quarter.

Looking forward, the company forecasts first quarter revenue to be $12.8 billion, plus or minus $500 million. Analysts currently expect the company to post revenue of $12.79 billion for the first quarter.

Gross margin for the first quarter is expected to be: 59%, plus or minus a couple of percentage points.

The company forecasts full year 2014 revenue to be approximately flat with full year 2013 revenue of $52.71 billion. Analysts currently expect the company to post revenue of $53.21 billion for the full year 2014.

Full year 2014 gross margin is expected to be 60%, plus or minus a few percentage points.