Intel Reports Q1 Results Exceed Expectations Thanks To Enterprise Strength

Industry folks have been anticipating the report of Intel's Q1 results and it will be fully unleashed today after the market closes at 5:30pm ET. Why do we care? Well, analysts will tell you this is important stuff partially because Intel's earnings results are a health indicator of the PC market, given the trend towards tablets and Intel's lack of participation in tablets.

Analyst expectations of Intel are, as you probably guessed, rather low. They expect that tablets are so huge, and that Intel being still reliant on the PC market, will see an increasingly negative impact on revenue if they continue to be shut out of the tablet market. When Intel forecasted a revenue of $11.5 billion, plus or minus $400 million, for Q1 of 2011, analysts scoffed at the number as being too high. In late January, Intel lowered the number to a range between $11.3 billion and $12.1 billion garnering much of the same reaction from analysts. Well, today Intel reported actual EPS and revenue on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis of $12.9 billion and $12.8 billion, respectively, that exceeded all expectations.

"The first-quarter revenue was an all-time record for Intel fueled by double digit annual revenue growth in every major product segment and across all geographies," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. "These outstanding results, combined with our guidance for the second quarter, position us to achieve greater than 20 percent annual revenue growth."

Looking at just the Non-GAAP results (meaning the numbers that exclude certain expenses and impacts related to acquisitions) revenue increased by 12% when compared to Q4 of 2010, and increased by 25% when compared to Q1 of 2010. You can take a look at the rest of the numbers here. Intel thanks this record result to their strength in enterprise solutions and push for new products. They continue on to make some bold statements about future growth, perhaps in hopes that this will finally get Wall Street excited about them again.

[via WSJ]