Intel earnings: Chip giant to report Q4 results as PC sales plummet

January 26, 2023

Intel (INTC) will announce its Q4 2022 earnings after the bell on Thursday, as the chip industry continues to struggle with slowing consumer and enterprise demand. Here’s what analysts expect from the company in the quarter, as compiled by Bloomberg, compared with how the company performed in the same quarter last year.

Revenue: $14.4 billion expected versus $19.5 billion in Q4 2021
Adjusted EPS: $0.19 expected versus $1.09 in Q4 2021
Client Computing: $7.4 billion expected versus $10.1 billion in Q4 2021
Data Center and AI: $4 billion expected versus 7.3 billion in Q4 2021
Network and Edge: $2.2 billion expected versus $1.1 billion in Q4 2021

Intel is facing a steep drop in consumer PC sales, as shoppers choose to hold on to the laptops and desktops they purchased at the peak of the pandemic. According to Gartner, Q4 worldwide PC shipments declined a stunning 28.5%, the biggest decline since the firm started following shipments in the mid-1990s.

Microsoft (MSFT), which reported its fiscal Q2 earnings on Tuesday, offered a hint at the potential problems in the PC market, as Windows OEM sales, or Windows licenses sold to PC manufacturers, fell 39% year-over-year.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, with U.S. President Joe Biden (not pictured), announces the tech firm’s plan to build a $20 billion plant in Ohio, from the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus in Washington, U.S. January 21, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Investors will be keeping a close eye on Intel’s Data center business, as well. That branch is responsible for sales of hardware products to companies and firms building out their own servers, and serves as Intel’s second largest business.

Intel should serve as a kind of bellwether for the chip industry, as it is among the first of the major semiconductor firms to announce its results. Rival AMD (AMD) will report earnings on Jan. 31, while Qualcomm (QCOM) will announce its earnings on Feb. 2. Graphics chip giant Nvidia (NVDA), meanwhile, will report its earnings on Feb. 22.

Intel is in the midst of a rebuild of sorts, as CEO Pat Gelsinger attempts to restore the storied company to prominence among chip designers and manufacturers. To that end, he’s building out massive fabrication facilities around the world including a $20 billion plant in Ohio.

Still, Intel’s stock price has been hammered over the last year. Through the last 12 months, shares of the chip maker are off 42%. That’s far worse than AMD, which is down 32% or Nvidia, which is off 13%.

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