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Intel sign in front of the offices of the offices and the museum located in Silicon Valley
Andreistanescu / Dreamstime
Strong sales of their personal computer chips and their autonomous driving unit Mobileye helped
Intel
end a difficult 2020.
Silicon Valley chip maker said fourth-quarter sales fell to $ 19.98, from $ 20,211 million in the previous year. Still, personal computer sales rose 9% to $ 10.9 billion, and the company said it sold a record number of laptop chips. Analysts forecast PC sales of $ 9.57 million.
Mobileye stood out, with revenue up approximately 50%, to $ 333 million. “Mobileye is on track to be a $ 1 billion annualized business, a real success,” says Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights and Strategy.
Intel (ticker: INTC) posted a fourth-quarter overall net profit of $ 5.9 billion, up $ 1.42 per share, compared to a profit of $ 6.9 billion or $ 1.58 in the first quarter. previous year. Adjusted for restructuring and acquisition costs, profits were $ 1.52 per share.
The results easily exceeded Intel’s own sales forecasts for the fourth quarter and exceeded consensus estimates, allowing outgoing CEO Bob Swan to leave the company on a very high note.
Shares of Intel rallied in the final minutes of trading on Thursday, rising 6.5% to close at $ 62.46, after Intel unexpectedly released results about seven minutes before the end of the trading session.
“We significantly exceeded our expectations for the quarter, limiting our fifth consecutive record year,” Swan said. “The demand for computing performance offered by Intel remains very strong and our focus on growth opportunities is bearing fruit.”
Wall Street expected Intel’s data center chip sales to fall nearly 25% in the fourth quarter, but the company reported sales of $ 6.1 billion, down 16% from the period from the previous year.
Intel gave investors another reason to cheer, announcing it would increase its 2021 dividend by 5%.
Amid the shortage of chips around the world that have hampered product production, from video game consoles to cars, Intel issued optimistic guidelines for the first quarter.
The company said it expected non-GAAP profits of $ 1.10 per share on adjusted revenue of $ 17.5 billion. The adjusted revenue figure excludes $ 1.1 billion in flash memory sales because the company sold the unit to Sk Hynix in late 2020.
Swan will be replaced by VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger on February 15th.
At the conference call late Thursday, Gelsinger said the company is likely to continue manufacturing most of its 2023 chips, but said “we are likely to expand our use of external foundries for certain technologies and products. “. The incoming CEO promised a new update once he officially started at the company next month.
Shares of Intel rose 3.2% last year, while the PHLX Semiconductor Index gained 64%. He
S&P 500
has increased by 16% over the past year.
Write to Max A. Cherney to [email protected]