Microchip titan Intel Corporation last night announced a drop in net profit for the final quarter of 2004 despite record sales and solid demand for its chips.
Net profit fell 2.3% from a year earlier to $2.12 billion in the three months ending December 25. Earnings per share were unchanged at 33 cents, beating Wall Street's general consensus by two cents. Sales surged 9.8% to $9.56 billion.
Quarterly net profits were hit by income taxes, which more than doubled to $907m from $407m a year before.
'We ended 2004 with record revenues and robust demand for Intel architecture products across all geographies and channels,' Intel chief executive Craig Barrett said in a statement.
'Our investments in manufacturing capacity, innovative new products and global presence have allowed us to post double-digit gains in both revenue and profits two years in a row,' he said. 'In 2005, we look forward to continued growth,' he added.
For the whole of 2004, Intel said net profit surged 33.2% from the previous year to $7.52 billion while sales advanced 13.5% to $30.14 billion. For 2005, Intel said it expected revenue in the first quarter of between $8.8-9.4 billion.
