Intel Corp (INTC)

[Elmer Phud]

DJ Intel/Outlook -3: Repurchased 62.6M Shares For $1B In 1Q

Intel's gross margins were 52% in the first quarter and 47% in the second quarter last year.

The company also reiterated that it expects a 51% gross margin for the full year of 2003, plus or minus a few points.

Intel said in the quarterly report that it expects $20 million of losses from equity securities and interest for the second quarter. This is due to an expected net loss on equity securities and associated equity derivatives of about $60 million, primarily as a result of impairment charges on private equity investments, offset by expected net interest income, according to the filing.

Intel expects depreciation expense to be about $1.2 billion for the second quarter of 2003 and $4.8 billion for the full year 2003, lower than our original expectation of $4.9 billion for the year.

The company also said it expects spending on research and development, plus marketing, general and administrative expenses in the second quarter to be between $2 billion and $2.1 billion, flat compared with the first quarter.

Research and development spending is still expected to total $4 billion in 2003, the filing said.

Intel also said in the filing that it bought back 62.6 million shares of common stock for $1 billion in the first quarter. As of March 29, 527 million shares remained available for repurchase under the buyback authorization. Since the program began in 1990 the company has repurchased and retired about 1.8 billion shares at a cost of about $31 billion.

Intel had 6.5 billion shares of common stock outstanding as of April 25.

The company's stock closed Tuesday at $19.54 a share.