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Intel Stock Dives 11% on Q3 Results

By Eric Volkman – Updated Oct 23, 2020 at 3:13PM

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The company edged past analyst estimates for revenue and net profit, but investors still found its performance lacking.

Investors weren't too pleased with Intel's (INTC -0.61%) latest quarterly results. The tech giant released its third-quarter 2020 figures after market hours on Thursday, and the fallout the following day has been severe.

For the quarter, the company booked revenue of $18.3 billion, representing a 4% decline year over year. Adjusted net income amounted to $4.7 billion ($1.11 per share) for a steeper fall of 26%.

CPU being inserted by a hand.

Image source: Getty Images.

Despite the declines, those numbers were actually a bit better than most analysts had anticipated. On average, they were predicting $18.2 billion on the top line, and an adjusted per-share net profit of $1.10.

One culprit for the year-over-year declines was the relatively high-margin data center market segment. "Data-centric revenue," as Intel calls it, suffered a 10% drop, in contrast to "PC-centric revenue," which inched up by 1%.

The company also proffered guidance for its current quarter, and for the entirety of fiscal 2020. Intel believes its Q4 revenue will be around $17.4 billion, with per-share earnings coming in at $1.10. As with the trailing quarterly results, these are slightly above average analyst forecasts ($17.36 billion and $1.07, respectively). That revenue figure, though, is 14% below that of Q4 2019.

As for the full year, Intel is predicting that its top line will be $75.3 billion, and it will net $4.90 per share in earnings. In contrast to the quarterly forecast, the revenue figure if realized would represent year-over-year growth of nearly 5%.

Investors were obviously expecting much better news from their company. In late afternoon trading on Friday, Intel's shares were down by 11%.

Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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