Intel’s Q4 A Mixed Bag: Misses Estimates With $0.48 EPS, But Nails The Street’s Revenue Consensus
Intel has just reported both its fiscal Q4 2012 and year-end numbers, and they’re a mixed bag to say the least. The company itself expected to rake in $13.6 billion in revenues as per its Q3 release, but only managed to hit $13.5 billion this time around — a slight disappointment to be sure, but right in line with analysts’ consensus.
That said, the legendary chipmaker only reported earnings per share of $0.48, just missing Bloomberg’s consensus estimate of $0.49. Net income this quarter was $2.5 billion, down from $3 billion in Q3 and $3.4 billion from the year-ago quarter.
Pulling back a bit to look at the whole fiscal year, we find that Intel has raked in $53.3 billion, and reported net income of $11.0 billion. Intel’s Data Center business unit was the clear standout in fiscal 2012 (which may not come as a surprise to some of you), as both its PC group and its other architecture groups dipped considerably from their positions last year.
“The fourth quarter played out largely as expected as we continued to execute through a challenging environment,” said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. He went on to highlight the progress Intel had made in breaking into the mobile space with chipsets for smartphones and tablets (likely to be a key driver of performance, if Intel’s presence at CES is any indication), and noted that Intel worked with its partners to “reinvent the PC” — something that seems to be a crucial for Intel since demand for more standard computers has notably dipped. Intel’s Q4 PC Client Group performance stands as a testament to that shift in computing demand; it only generated revenues of $8.5 billion, down a full 6% year-over-year.
(Oh, and in case you were curious, there’s still no word on who is set to succeed CEO Paul Otellini when he retires later this year.)
Q4 may not have been the staggering success that Intel was secretly hoping for, and investors sure seem miffed (for now) — Intel’s stock has dipped nearly 3% in after hours trading. As always, there’s an earnings conference call slated to take place any minute now, and I’ll update this post if something new or interesting pops up.
Leave a Reply