Text size
Intel plaque located in front of the entrance to the offices and museum located in Silicon Valley
Andreistanescu / Dreamstime
Strong sales of its personal computer chips and its Mobileye autonomous driving unit helped
Intel
finish a difficult 2020 on a high note.
The Silicon Valley chip maker said fourth quarter sales fell from $ 20.21 billion to $ 19.98 in the same period last year. Sales of personal computers, however, rose 9% to $ 10.9 billion, and the company said it had sold a record number of notebook chips. Analysts had forecast PC sales of $ 9.57 billion.
Mobileye stood out, with revenue growing around 50%, to $ 333 million. “Mobileye is on its way to becoming an annualized business worth more than $ 1 billion, a real achievement,” says Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights and Strategy.
Intel (ticker: INTC) posted an overall net profit of $ 5.9 billion in the fourth quarter, which equates to $ 1.42 per share, compared to a profit of $ 6.9 billion, or US $ 1.58 in the same quarter last year. Adjusted for restructuring and acquisition costs, earnings were $ 1.52 per share.
The results surpassed Intel’s own sales forecasts for the fourth quarter and exceeded consensus estimates, allowing CEO Bob Swan to leave the company on a high note.
Intel shares rose in the closing minutes of Thursday’s trading session, up 6.5% to close at $ 62.46, after Intel unexpectedly released results about seven minutes before the end of trading.
“We significantly exceeded our expectations for the quarter, closing our fifth consecutive record year,” said Swan. “The demand for the computing performance that Intel offers remains very strong and our focus on growth opportunities is paying off.”
Wall Street expected Intel’s data center chip sales to drop nearly 25% in the fourth quarter, but the company posted sales of $ 6.1 billion, down 16% from the same period last year. .
Intel gave investors another reason to applaud, announcing that it was increasing its 2021 dividend by 5%.
Amid a shortage of chips around the world that has hampered the production of products ranging from video game consoles to automobiles, Intel has released an optimistic outlook for the first quarter.
The company said it expects non-GAAP earnings of $ 1.10 per share on adjusted revenue of $ 17.5 billion. The adjusted revenue number excludes flash memory sales of $ 1.1 billion because the company sold the unit to Sk Hynix in late 2020.
Swan will be replaced by VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger on February 15.
In the conference call on Thursday night, Gelsinger said the company will likely continue to make the majority of its 2023 chips in-house, but said that “we are likely to expand our use of external foundries for certain technologies and products”. The new CEO has promised yet another update as soon as he officially starts at the company next month.
Intel shares rose 3.2% last year, while the PHLX Semiconductor index rose 64%. O
S&P 500
increased 16% over last year.
Write to Max A. Cherney at [email protected]