Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) released its earnings report for the third quarter of 2013 this afternoon after the bell rang on Wall Street. The company showed earnings of $0.58 per share on revenue of $13.5 billion. On today’s market shares in the processor designer rose a fraction to finish at $23.39.
In the run up to the release of this earnings report, analysts studying Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) were looking for earnings of 53 cents per share from the company on revenue totaling $13.5 billion. In the same three months of 2012 the company earned 60 cents per share on revenue of $13.5 billion.
Intel problems
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) has had its share of problems through 2013. The company has seen the personal computer market fall far more quickly than it expected. With a tiny share of the mobile market, that leaves the company with existential worry about its future. The company’s mobile prospects are picking up, but not quickly enough for investors in the company.
The third quarter has not seen the rush of back to school PC buying that Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) has seen in past years, and that indicates that holiday computer buying will not be as effusive as in past years. Intel is still relying on a dying business for the vast majority of its income, and that is causing trouble for the future of its stock price.
The first tablets using the company’s new range of mobile processors, which are named Bay Trail, will be available for sale in the fourth quarter of this year. The company has been marketing those processors, but very few mobile device manufacturers have come on board at this stage. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) performance is still highly linked to the performance of Microsoft Windows.
Despite the decline in the growth of desktops, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) fortunes are still linked to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). The company has not managed to make headway with companies making Android tablets and smart phones, leaving it reliant on the performance of Windows mobile operating systems.
Intel performance
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) shares have risen by more than 13% so far this year. In any other year that return would be considered sizeable, but in 2013 the company has lagged the market. The S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) has risen by more than 19% since January 1. The underperformance of the company’s shares is directly linked to the company’s declining selling prices for desktop processors, and its inability to break into the mobile market.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) promised that 2013 would be the year it began to make strides in mobile, but that has not come to fruition in the year so far. The advent of Bay Trail may help the company’s mobile profile, but it still has to deal with pricing and margin problems on mobile devices.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) will host an earnings call at 5 PM EST in order to discuss the numbers in today’s report. Analysts will be eager to talk about the firm’s mobile prospects and its expectations for the fourth quarter.
