Intel’s earnings forecast comes up well short, and the stock is tanking

“While we expect a slightly sub-seasonal first quarter from our core product businesses, we see material inventory corrections in Mobileye and PSG,” Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner said on the earnings call, referring to the Programmable Solutions Group.

Furthermore, the company anticipates “a significant drop in [Intel Foundry Services] revenue after seeing accelerated purchasing in our traditional packaging business and cyclical weakness in wafer equipment-buying in the first half of the year,” he continued.

Intel’s stock was falling 11% in after-hours action.

For the fourth quarter, the company reported net income of $2.7 billion, or 63 cents a share, compared with a loss of about $700 million, or 16 cents a share, in the year-prior period. On an adjusted basis, Intel earned 54 cents a share, while analysts were modeling 45 cents a share.

“We expect to unlock further efficiencies in 2024 and beyond as we implement our new internal foundry model, which is designed to drive greater transparency and accountability and higher returns on our owners’ capital,” Zinsner said in a release.

Revenue climbed to $15.4 billion from $14.0 billion, whereas the FactSet consensus called for $15.2 billion.

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Intel saw a 33% boost in revenue, to $8.8 billion, from its client-computing group, which is the company’s largest unit and the one that encompasses PCs. Analysts had been modeling $8.5 billion.

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Revenue from the data-center and artificial-intelligence group was down 10% to $4.0 billion, while analysts were looking for $4.1 billion.

The company’s network and edge business saw a 24% drop in revenue, to $1.5 billion, relative to a year before. That total matched the FactSet consensus.

Meanwhile, Mobileye revenue increased 13% to $637 million, and foundry services revenue jumped 63% to $291 million.

Intel’s earnings report comes as its stock has enjoyed a nice recent rally, surging about 50% since the company last posted results three months ago. The recent run in the share price “raised the bar on expectations,” an HSBC analyst wrote earlier this week.

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