For the fourth quarter, the company posted non-GAAP revenue of $19.5 billion, up 4% from a year ago, and adjusted earnings of $1.09 a share, down from $1.48 a year ago. Analysts had expected non-GAAP revenue of $18.3 billion and earnings of 90 cents per share, in line with Intel’s own forecast. On a GAAP basis, revenue was $20.5 billion, ahead of the company’s forecast of $19.2 billion.
The company also announced a 5% dividend increase, boosting the payout to 36.5 cents quarterly.
Intel shares were down1.6% in after-hours trading.
“It was a tremendous finish to a great year, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said in an interview with Barron’s, noting that the company topped revenue guidance by more than $1 billion, driven by strength in both the PC and server business.
On the outlook for the PC market, Gelsinger says the market has expanded to about 1 million units a day, and is “just structurally larger” than it was before the pandemic. He adds that the launch of Windows 11 will be a boost to demand for both
Microsoft
(MSFT) and for Intel, and he says that a corporate PC refresh cycle is emerging. Gelsinger says demand is being driven by “higher PC density,” with more computers per household as people spend more time working from home.
As for the strong growth in the data center business, Gelsinger says strength came in particular from enterprise and government customers, with the cloud business not quite as strong, conceding “we were a little behind there all year.”
Asked about component shortages, Gelsinger said that “everything is a challenge in the supply chain environment we’re in.” One issue is that customers need to get “matched sets” of components to complete finished goods. He says there are shortages in multiple foundry sizes, resulting in shortages of power controllers, network interface cards, and ethernet controllers, among other parts. He also notes that while Intel makes most of its own parts, the company relies on foundries for 25% to 30% of its capacity, and…
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