Once again Intel (INTC) has proven itself to be a safe investment in times of turmoil. The latest quarter beat the best analysts expectations by 8 cents as earnings came in at 59 cents. This is the 10th consecutive quarter Intel has surprised the market with outstanding results. The EPS was 16% higher than the same quarter last year.
The revenue increased, year over year, by 22% to 13.112 billion, again well ahead of expectations. Intel is firing on all cylinders with double-digit growth in every segment of the company.This is the 5th consecutive quarter of record revenue.
The future looks even rosier with expectations from management of revenue between $13.5 and $14.5 billion and a gross margin around 65%. The strong momentum should carry through into the second half of 2011 with management projections of annual revenue growth in the mid-20 percent range.
As of July 2, Intel had over $13 billion in cash, cash equivalents and securities compared with $2.1 billion in long-term debt. The company spent $2.0 billion repurchasing 93 million shares.
Intel also spent $961 million in the quarter paying dividends. *
The current dividend yields a very tatsty 3.3% and is one of the safest incomes to be found anywhere in these troubling times..
As a value investment Intel trades at only10.2x 2011 earnings, which is a 50% discount to the industry average of 15.x earnings.
The fact that the shares went down after such outstanding results perhaps questions the negative view of Intel by the analysts who continue find fault with one of the best growth and value stocks.
The question investors need to ask themselves right now … is Intel a safer investment than Gold or Treasurys over the next 12 months?
