Intel reports strong Q1, accelerates growth in data center business

CEO Brian Krzanich noted that Intel's data-centric businesses accounted for almost half of Q1 revenue.

Intel delivered strong first quarter financial results Thursday led by growth in its data center Internet of things businesses.

The tech giant reported a net income of $4.5 billion, or 93 cents per share.

Non-GAAP earnings were 87 cents per share on revenue of $16.1 billion, up 13 percent from the year prior.

Wall Street was looking for earnings of 72 cents per share with $15.1 billion in revenue.

In prepared remarks, CEO Brian Krzanich noted that Intel's data-centric businesses accounted for almost half of Q1 revenue.

On a conference call with analysts, Krzanich said:

What we're seeing is an unrelenting demand for computing performance driven by the continuing growth of data and the need to process, analyze, store and share that data. That dynamic benefit our traditional CPU business and it reinforces the big bets we've made in memory, modem, FPGAs and autonomous vehicles. We're competing to win in our largest collection of the addressable market ever.
Looking closer at the numbers, Intel's data center unit rang up $5.2 billion in revenue during the quarter, up 24 percent year over year. The Internet of things business grew at a rate of 17 percent year-over-year to deliver $840 million in revenue.

Meanwhile, Intel's client computing group posted revenue of $8.2 billion, up three percent from the previous year.

"Compared to the first-quarter expectations we set in January, revenue was higher, operating margins were stronger and EPS was better," said Intel CFO Bob Swan. "Our data-centric strategy is accelerating Intel's transformation."

Swan said Intel is raising its full-year revenue outlook based on the strong quarter. The company now expects revenue of $65 billion and earnings of $3.55 per share.

For the current quarter, Wall Street is looking for non-GAAP earnings of 81 cents per share with $15.55 billion in revenue. Intel responded well above target with second-quarter EPS of 85 cents and revenue guidance of $16.3 billion.

Robert Swan, CFO of Intel, was upbeat following the outlook. He said:

We believe 2018 will be another record year for Intel. We've met and exceeded our financial commitments, and we feel great about where we are relative to our 3-year plan. Our PC-centric team keeps winning in a challenging market, and our data-centric businesses are growing fast, fueling Intel's transformation to a company that powers the cloud in smart connected devices.

SOURCE BY