Chip giant Intel Corp. (INTC - Analyst Report) 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 - Analyst Report) and Cisco (CSCO - Analyst Report).
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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