Intel Corp’s earnings fell in the first three months of the year amid a continued slump in the worldwide PC market, but revenue grew slightly because of solid demand for tablet processors and its data-center services.
Intel, the world’s largest maker of microprocessors, said on Tuesday that it earned US$1.95 billion, or earnings per share of US$0.38, in the first quarter this year. That was down 5 percent from US$2.05 billion, or earnings per share of US$0.40, the previous year.
Revenue grew 1 percent to US$12.8 billion from US$12.6 billion.
Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings per share of US$0.37 on revenue of US$12.8 billion.
Although revenue for the PC business fell, Intel saw signs of improvement. The company also credited solid growth in data centers and said it shipped 5 million tablet processors.
Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich described that as “strong progress on our goal of 40 million tablets for 2014.”
There are signs that the steep PC slump is easing, though it may be a temporary bump from Microsoft’s retirement of the Windows XP operating system, which it launched in 2001.
Last week, research firms Gartner and IDC said that although global PC shipments declined in the first three months of the year for the eighth straight quarter, the decline was not as steep as in the final quarter of last year.
For the second quarter, Intel is forecasting revenue of US$12.5 billion to US$13.5 billion. Analysts are expecting US$12.9 billion.
Intel shares climbed US$0.57, or 2.1 percent, to US$27.34 in after-hours trading after the results came out. The stock had closed at US$26.77, up US$0.21 and not far from its 52-week high of US$27.12.
Meanwhile, ASML Holding NV, the largest supplier of equipment to chipmakers such as Intel and Samsung Electronics Co, said it sees only incremental sales gains in the coming two quarters.
The Veldhoven, Netherlands-based company, a bellwether for the semiconductor industry, yesterday reported first quarter earnings of 249 million euros (US$344 million), down 49 percent from 481 million euros in the fourth quarter of last year.
Sales fell 24 percent to 1.40 billion euros for the same period.
New orders declined to 1.07 billion euros from 1.45 billion euros.
Without specifying which companies or products, ASML said chipmakers are “encountering timing uncertainties in next-generation device designs.”
ASML forecast sales of 3 billion euros for the second and third quarters combined.
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