INSTANT VIEW: Intel shares down after quarterly report

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Intel Corp posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit but said uncertainty in global economic conditions made it difficult to predict product demand, and its shares fell 4 percent.

The world's largest chip maker refrained from giving a formal revenue forecast for the second quarter, but said it was planning for revenue to be roughly flat with the first quarter.

COMMENTARY:

AVI COHEN, MANAGING PARTNER, AVIAN SECURITIES

"The numbers were good but people were expecting stronger commentary. Instead we got flattish expectations."

"The shares are down because people were disappointed with the lack of specific guidance. People knew it was going to be north of $7 billion but they wanted to know how much Intel was willing to commit to the next quarter."

NATHAN BROOKWOOD, RESEARCH FELLOW, INSIGHT 64

"I think things are no longer looking completely dark. There is light at the end of the tunnel -- that's all good news. It would be even better if people were feeling good enough about it that they could put stakes in the ground in an official manner (with) a revenue estimate."

"Their outlook is sort of like the weather in San Francisco on a summer morning -- very foggy. One of the problems we have seen with the company and the industry over the past few months is there is no visibility ... they said due to continued uncertainty they are not setting a revenue expectation."

"They expected revenues to be flat for Q2 and that's not bad -- I guess if you are looking for the glass to be half full the fact that things are no longer in free fall and they are confident enough to say maybe we have bottomed, that's positive. But ... how come nobody is willing to come out on a limb and say revenues are going to be x."

"The other good news is, everyone was expecting them to make a couple of pennies ... or a loss and instead they came in with 11 cents."

"Certainly this is a positive report and in terms of having bottomed and gross margins certainly being flat in the next quarter -- they did state that margins aren't falling anymore."

PATRICK WANG, ANALYST WEDBUSH MORGAN SECURITIES

"Q1 came in ahead of expectations. The problem with that is that for Q2 we'd expected some improvement and we're not seeing that improvement based on their guidance."

"The question is, is management being conservative. Especially with the CEO talking about PC sales bottoming out. So if we're bottoming out in the first quarter, and we're talking about revenue being flat in the second quarter, is that just being conservative?"

"I think it comes down to how management explains the ambiguity behind the second quarter."

KURT BRUNNER, PORTFOLIO MANAGER, SWARTHMORE GROUP IN PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

"I like to hear the statement that they believe PC sales have bottomed out, and that moving toward more normal seasonal patterns."

"If indeed that correction has occurred, then I think that goes in the positive column just in terms of the outlook for the PC industry and the tech sector."

"We're seeing the shares trade off a little bit here, but they've been running up pretty strong."

"Gross margins they're talking about in the mid-40s, so (you) could say they are being a little conservative, but it's saying it could be a little lower this quarter."

"My take away is things don't sound as if they're getting worse. Maybe we bounce along the bottom here, but we're not seeing a rollover."

DOUG FREEDMAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, BROADPOINT AMTECH

"I think the outlook people are looking at with a little bit of disappointment in that they are not giving us a lot of clarity. Again they have not given us a revenue number citing uncertainty and limited visibility."

"They continue to be very vague on guidance and the stock tends to be driven by gross margins ... the fact that they didn't guide gross margins higher is inherently a little bit of a disappointment."

"The margin (forecast) leaves a lot open to interpretation given that they reported a 45 percent gross margin. People are looking for gross margins to be rising. You would have liked for them to see gross margins are rising, plus or minus ... with this guidance you are left wondering whether gross margins are rising, flat, or even down next quarter."

"The results are impressive if you just look at 11 cents in a quarter where people were concerned whether Intel would make a profit at all. Unfortunately some of that came from much lower taxes...half of the good news came from lower tax rates."

ANDY NG, ANALYST, MORNINGSTAR

"It's surprising that they again didn't provide guidance. In the press release Otellini said that PC sales had bottomed out, which provides some comfort, but there is still very little visibility. It's hard to see what's happening to demand."

"It's interesting to see that the revenue from the Atom chip fell 27 percent sequentially. It's probably because of the economic recession. The netbook market is still growing."

(Reporting by Clare Baldwin and Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco, Gina Keating in Los Angeles and Leah Schnurr in New York, Compiled by Tiffany Wu)