A giant came from Santa Clara
To show us some numbers so fair-ah.
He ended his spiel
With a guttural squeal:
"That share price brings me to despair-ah!"
-- Anders Bylund, five minutes ago
Mystery solved: Now we know why Intel
That's a bit of a shift from what the same man said three months ago. Allow myself to quote ... myself.
In response to an analyst's question late in the earnings call, CFO Stacy Smith explained that pricing pressure on NAND flash chips will continue, but should have a 'negligible impact on the gross margin in Q1.'
I'm still stumped as to why he couldn't have just said so from the start because the results are coming in right where Smith said they would. It's not a surprise, just a phenomenon worthy of explanation up front.
That said, the quarter as a whole was quite impressive. The processor price war with AMD
Here's a handy comparison chart of the most important numbers, most of which came as delightful surprises to analysts and investors alike:
Q1 2008 |
Q4 2007 |
Q1 2007 |
|
---|---|---|---|
Revenue |
$9.67 |
$10.71 |
$8.85 |
Gross Profit |
$5.21 |
$6.11 |
$4.43 |
Net Income |
$1.44 |
$2.27 |
$1.64 |
EPS |
$0.25 |
$0.38 |
$0.28 |
Cash From Operations |
$2.00 |
$4.77 |
$1.55 |
The report struck a pleasant chord with investors, who drove Intel's stock price up by as much as 8% in after-hours trading. This could be the start of a long slog back to a respectable valuation. I still think that the stock is undervalued at an updated P/E ratio just above 19.
It also sets a jovial tenor for the start of this earnings season alongside similarly jolly reports from fellow giants Coca-Cola
Then again, that's how it looked after IBM's
Further Foolishness: