Intel Corp (INTC)

[ibc]

These analysts just had their estimates way too high and were basically forced to bring their numbers down in the face of overwhelming evidence.

They were mostly correct on the PC market and BK acknowledged that the PC market would be down high-single digits. Gartner / IDC updated their forecasts roughly in line with that number.

Operating income was down a whopping 24% year over year, which is why I find BK's "70% non-PC operating income" so amusing.

Consequently the stock has come down from ~36 to about ~30 over the past several weeks to reflect this weak PC market.

If I might speculate a bit... The XP upgrade cycle last year pulled demand forward and forced people to upgrade before they otherwise would have. This is now the air pocket that is in that wake.

I think that PCs will stabilize at some point, but I seriously doubt that the level is at 300M units / year. I'm more inclined to project 200M units / year when everything bottoms out. There's also an existential risk for Intel when/if Apple and or the ARM hordes start growing their mobile software stacks into laptop forms factors - dragging all of the developers with them.