By Asa Fitch 

Chip maker Intel Corp. reported a jump in first-quarter earnings buoyed by sales in its data-center business as the work-from-home economy spurs demand for computing power, but it joined many companies in pulling full-year guidance because of business uncertainty.

The Santa Clara, Calif., company, the U.S.'s largest chip maker, reported sales of $19.83 billion for the March quarter, a 23% increase over the same period last year. Earnings per share rose 51% to $1.31.

With the pandemic forcing millions of people to work from home, Intel said its datacenter division, already growing before the health crisis, saw sales increase 43%. Providers of data centers, the huge server farms that store data and power the internet, have been accelerating upgrades and adding hardware, including Intel processors, to cope with growing demand.

Sales in the company's division that includes chips powering personal computers came in ahead of Intel's expectations, rising 14% as consumers bought machines to work remotely.

The sales outlook of $18.5 billion for the current quarter came in above the $17.79 billion analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting. Intel's guidance for adjusted per-share earnings of $1.04 came in short of what Wall Street has been projecting, and it pulled its guidance for the full year. Like other tech companies, Intel has been juggling a mixture of costs and benefits from the pandemic but has held up well relative to many corporate peers.

Intel's stock fell more than 5% in after-hours trading.

The first-quarter results came in ahead of Wall Street forecasts. The company was projected to make $1.23 in earnings per share on $18.67 billion of sales, according to FactSet.

Write to Asa Fitch at asa.fitch@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 23, 2020 16:57 ET (20:57 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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