Intel 3Q Profit Leaps 43 Percent

By JORDAN ROBERTSON

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Intel Corp.’s profit leaped 43 percent in the third quarter as cost-cutting, swelling microprocessor demand and a massive restructuring helped the world’s largest semiconductor company glide past Wall Street’s already-bullish expectations.

The Santa Clara-based chipmaker said Tuesday it earned $1.86 billion, or 31 cents per share, in the three months ended in September. That beat by a penny the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, and it’s 43 percent higher than the $1.3 billion, or 22 cents per share, Intel earned in the year-ago period.

Intel is profiting from robust worldwide PC sales that are driving up demand for microprocessors, which act as the brains of those computers.

Higher sales of microprocessors helped the company offset flat average selling prices. Revenues for the period were $10.09 billion, a 15 percent jump from the $8.74 billion in sales rung up last year.

The sales surprise helped jolt Intel’s stock. Analysts were expecting $9.62 billion in revenues, a figure already boosted by a surprise mid-quarter financial update by Intel last month that came the same day as smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. launched its highly touted new Opteron brand server chip.

While it’s competing fiercely for market share with AMD, Intel has also been aggressively cutting costs, including the announcement in September last year that the company would eliminate 10,500 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force, to save about $3 billion annually by 2008. Intel said in April that it had completed the restructuring.

Intel shares rose 82 cents, or more than 3 percent, to $26.30 in after-hours trading, after finishing down 27 cents during the regular session at $25.48.