Intel 4Q Net Income Rises 6 Percent

NEW YORK (AP) —

Intel’s fourth-quarter net income rose 6 percent, as the company offset flat demand for its personal-computer chips with higher sales of other products.

The world’s largest chipmaker earned $2.63 billion, or 51 cents per share, up from $2.47 billion, or 48 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2012. Revenue rose 3 percent to $13.83 billion.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected a profit of 52 cents per share on revenue of $13.72 billion.

Intel supplies chips for the majority of personal-computer processors, so the consumer shift away from PCs — and toward tablets and smartphones — continues to hurt sales. The company has tried to offset the decline with higher sales of chips for servers, phones and tablets.

Last week, a pair of research firms said PC sales continued to sink during the year-end shopping season, capping the steepest annual decline in PC shipments in decades.

According to Gartner Inc., worldwide PC sales fell 7 percent during the fourth quarter, marking the seventh straight quarter of declines. Meanwhile, International Data Corp. said global PC shipments fell 6 percent.

Fourth-quarter revenue from Intel’s PC group was $8.6 billion, about the same as a year ago, while data center revenue jumped 8 percent to $3 billion. Revenue from the company’s other businesses increased 9 percent to $1.1 billion.

For the full year, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company earned $9.62 billion, or $1.89 per share, down from $11 billion, or $2.13 per share, in 2012. Revenue fell to $52.71 billion from $53.34 billion.

For the current quarter, Intel projected revenue of $12.3 billion to $13.3 billion, bracketing analysts’ expectations of $12.8 billion.

Intel Corp. shares fell 79 cents, or 3 percent, to $25.75 in aftermarket trading. The shares ended the regular session down 13 cents to $26.54.

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