GreenBkk.com Tech | Instant View: Intel, IBM surpass Wall Street targets

Instant View: Intel, IBM surpass Wall Street targets

LOS ANGELES | Tue Apr 19, 2011 10:14pm EDT

(Reuters) - Intel Corp forecast revenues well above Wall Street's targets, sending its shares higher in after hours trade.

International Business Machines results also outpaced expectations and it raised its full-year profit forecast.

Commentary:

Intel:

DOUG FREEDMAN, ANALYST, GLEACHER & CO

"It's actually a question of how did management. Why did they guide where they guided, if this is what they could do and people called it a tough environment. My thought is what we are really seeing here -- Q1 last year was a big surprise as well. I think something is changing in terms of global seasonality that is driving it.

"The world had known they were introducing a new product -- sandy bridge. It shows Q3 and Q4 were really sub-seasonal they were really disappointing numbers.

"The result is that we cleaned all the inventory out of the channel. This is a bit of, we like your new product, we want your new product, now that you have it available start shipping it to us even though the build production over in Taiwan was lower and less than expected.

"There is no denying the data points were not good. I do think the data points out of Taiwan are becoming less and less indicative of the market. I think there is more production taking place in mainland China by people that we are not familiar with tracking or don't allow us to.

"We don't have the same visibility we might have had."

HENDI SUSANTO, ANALYST, GABELLI & CO

"Overall it's very positive. Gross margin is very strong.

"Despite the growth of tablets and mobile devices, people don't realize that at the back end, it still requires microprocessors. And Intel has 80 percent of that market.

"This is very positive for the small players in the semiconductor business that have a presence in the PC supply chain. It is also positive for the semiconductor equipment industry as Intel increased its guidance."

KEVIN CASSIDY, ANALYST, STIFEL NICOLAUS

"They are stunning numbers, especially that it was the PC client group that was so strong to them. Every region of the world to them was up quarter over quarter. It's quite a surprise to the market. There have been industry reports that say PC growth has been down year over year. Forward guidance looks good also.

Credit: Reuters (www.reuters.com)