Semiconductor group Intel last night disappointed investors when it failed to raise the top of its fourth-quarter sales forecast and unveiled a $600 million charge for a poorly performing wireless business.
The report sent Intel shares falling more than a dollar after the bell to $32.36 on the Instinet system from a Nasdaq close of $33.54.
California-based Intel said fourth-quarter revenue is now forecast at between $8.5 billion and $8.7 billion compared with a previous target of $8.1 billion to $8.7 billion.
That is up from $7.16 billion a year earlier, but analysts said the market had been ripe for Intel to raise the high end of its guidance after recent months of generally rosy economic news and strengthened projections from other chip makers.
Earlier this week, Fairchild Semiconductor International and Xilinx raised their quarterly revenue forecasts and chip equipment maker KLA-Tencor Corp. raised its forecast for new orders.
Ahead of the report, analysts had been expecting Intel to post revenue of $8.55 billion, on average, based on a range of $8.4 billion to $8.98 billion.
Intel is seeing solid seasonal growth in its microprocessor business, which represents about 80 per cent of its revenue, and demand for communications products remains on track with expectations, he said.
Nearly all of the $600 million write-down is due to unexpectedly poor sales in the wireless chipset business, partially as a result of products being late to market.
The net earnings-per-share impact of the charge and other tax-related items is 6 cents per share, according to Intel.
One bright spot was the gross margin forecast, which is now expected to be about 62 per cent, up from the previous forecast of 60 per cent. The tax rate for the quarter also was raised slightly to about 32 per cent, up from 31.5 per cent.