Following Intel Corporation’s (INTC) self-described “best quarter ever” in its fiscal second quarter earnings report back in July, the world’s largest chip-maker has again posted a positive surprise. This time INTC reported 52 cents per share on revenues totaling $11.1 billion in the quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate had been 50 cents per share on revenue on $11.01 billion.
The headline number sports a year-over-year net income increase of 59%, although as we saw in Intel’s 2nd quarter, year-over-year comps have been fairly easy to exceed. After all, in the 3rd quarter of 2009, the recession had only just come to an end, but corporate and consumer spending would take a few quarters before picking up.
Also, today’s earnings beat was followed by lowered guidance for the 3rd quarter from Intel in late August. This caused an avalanche of downward analyst estimate revisions in the past couple months — 8 analysts had taken down EPS estimates for the quarter, and 12 had done so for the December quarter, fiscal year 2010 and fiscal 2011, for good measure.
Even still, Intel posted revenues over $11 billion in a quarter for the first time in the company’s history, and Intel has initiated guidance for the fiscal 4th quarter at $11.4 billion. This, however, is roughly in line with the Zacks Consensus revenue estimate for fiscal Q410.
Ahead of today’s earnings report, investors seemed to feel confident about Intel’s numbers. By the closing bell Tuesday, INTC shares finished up 1.07% (21 cents per share), and shot up another 31 cents in the after-market but prior to the earnings release, before pulling back to around $19.93 per share.
The Zacks #3 Rank on INTC shares was upgraded on October 2nd. Analyst estimate revisions going forward would likely put upward pressure in the near term on the stock, especially if analysts are in agreement about Intel’s positive direction.
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