It was not the best of times for Intel during the final three months of 2018, as the semiconductor giant reported fourth-quarter sales that missed Wall Street’s expectations. Nor did it immediately give an update on its efforts to hire a new, permanent chief executive.
After the close of trading Thursday, Intel reported a fourth-quarter profit of $1.28 a share, which surpassed analysts’ forecasts of a profit of $1.22 a share. However, Intel’s sales of $18.7 billion failed to meet the consensus revenue forecast of $19.01 billion, leading to concerns about the market for the company’s new personal computer chips released during the quarter.
And the outlook Intel gave didn’t do much to assuage investors’ immediate feelings about the world’s biggest semiconductor company. Intel said that for the first quarter of 2019, it expects to earn 87 cents a share, on $16 billion in revenue, compared to analysts’ forecasts of earnings of $1.01 a share, on sales of $17.35 billion.
In after-hours trading, Intel shares fell by 7 percent, to $46.31.
Among Intel’s main business areas, PC sales remained the company’s biggest source of revenue, rising 10 percent from the fourth quarter of 2017, to $9.8 billion. Revenue from Intel’s data-center business totaled $6.1 billion, a 9 percent increase from the same period a year ago.
Intel’s outlook may lead to speculation about the health of the rest of the tech sector at a time when the United States and China are in the middle of a cooling-off period and engaging in discussion to avert an expanded trade war and higher tariffs on products made in each country and exported to the other.
Also weighing on Intel is the company’s ongoing search for a permanent chief executive to replace Brian Krzanich. Intel Chief Financial Officer Bob Swan has been serving as interim CEO for seven months; Krzanich stepped down after it was disclosing he had engaged in an extramarital relationship with an Intel employee that the company determined was consensual in nature.
On a conference call, Swan didn’t say that Intel has picked a new CEO yet, but that “the board continues to evaluate candidates,” and id “proceeding with a sense of urgency” about finding its next CEO.
