Chip giant Intel Corp. (INTC) once again beat earnings expectations for its fiscal Q3 of 2014. The company posted earnings per share of 66 cents on revenues of $14.6 billion, topping Zacks consensus expectations of 65 cents and $14.44 billion, respectively.
It's time to conclusively state that Intel's foray into the mobile market over the past several quarters has gone extremely well — this is the fourth time in the past five quarters the company has exceeded earnings expectations. Earnings were also up 13.7% year over year, indicating that the growth aspect of the mobile market continues on a robust trajectory. Intel has made this tricky transition better than most big chipmakers, such as IBM (IBM) and Cisco (CSCO).
Analysts tend to lock in estimates with Intel, although this quarter there was a bit more activity both upwardly and downwardly revising earnings estimates for Q3 and fiscal 2014 and 2015. The somewhat mixed bag — though it did have an upward bias overall — is the main reason Intel currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Year to date, Intel shares are up nearly 24%, including a slight push in after-market trading today following the earnings announcement. It's gained 38% in the past year, and although the stock is down 4% over the past five days — and what isn't, frankly? — Intel is the best-performing Dow stock of 2014 thus far.
Last year's Q4 was the last time Intel missed estimates. We're expecting $14.7 billion in revenues and 62 cents per share as of now. Check analyst estimate revisions in the coming days, and see how a strengthening or weakening of these numbers will have a direct effect on Intel's Zacks Rank.
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