Intel firm on margin target for year, shares jump
Intel Corp on Tuesday affirmed its profit-margin target for 2008, reassuring investors concerned about falling memory chip prices and the impact of a weak U.S. economy, sending its stock up 7.4 percent. The world’s largest maker of semiconductors reported a fall in first-quarter net income to $1.44 billion, or 25 cents per share, from $1.64 billion, or 28 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose to $9.67 billion from $8.85 billion, slightly better than Wall Street expectations.
With both Intel and smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.N: Quote, Profile, Research) issuing results warnings in the first quarter, fears had been mounting about PC sales with the U.S. economy possibly in a recession. Intel’s report on Tuesday went a long way toward easing those worries. “There was concern we were having a structural breakdown in demand — that finally the weakness in the economy was starting to hurt PC consumption — and this argues against that,” said Cody Acree, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus.
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