Intel shares fall after company provides weak forecast for the current quarter

Intel reported first-quarter earnings on Thursday that beat Wall Street expectations for earnings per share, but came up light in sales. Intel gave a weak forecast for the current quarter.

The stock fell 8% in extended trading.

Here’s how Intel did versus LSEG consensus expectations for the quarter ended in March:

• Earnings per share: 18 cents adjusted vs. 14 cents expected
• Revenue: $12.72 billion vs. $12.78 billion expected

For the second quarter, Intel expects earnings of 10 cents per share on revenue of $13 billion at the midpoint. That forecast compares to analysts’ expected earnings per share of 25 cents on $13.57 billion in sales.

In the first quarter, Intel reported a net loss of $400 million, or 9 cents per share, versus a net loss of $2.8 billion, or 66 cents per share, last year.

Revenue was $12.7 billion versus $11.7 billion a year ago, a 9% year-over-year increase.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger told investors on an earnings call to focus on the company’s long-term potential.

“We are one of two, maybe three, companies in the world that can continue to enable next-generation chip technologies,” he said.

The quarterly earnings report was the first since the company revealed that it had made its chip manufacturing business, called Intel Foundry, a separate line item with its own costs and sales.

Intel Foundry reported $4.4 billion in revenue during the quarter, which was down 10% year over year, the company said. The unit reported a $2.5 billion operating loss during the March quarter. Intel said last month that it had reported a $7 billion operating loss in its foundry in 2023.

Intel’s biggest business remains the chips it makes for PCs and laptops, which is reported as Client Computing sales. Those chip sales totaled $7.5 billion, up 31% from a year earlier.

Intel also makes central processors for servers, as well as other parts and software, which are reported in its Data Center and AI business. That line saw sales rise 5% to $3 billion, even as Intel continues to fight for server dollars against artificial intelligence chips made by companies like Nvidia.

Earlier this month, Intel said that it would release a new AI processor for servers called Gaudi 3, intended to compete against Nvidia’s popular graphics processing units, although it won’t ship until later this year. Intel said it expected more than $500 million in sales from its Gaudi 3 chips in the second half of the year.