Intel Earnings Beat Forecasts

Intel (INTC) CEO Paul Otellini said that the back-to-school season was a key player in the company's better-than-expected results. The strong Q3 sales can only point to a reasonably strong holiday season.

Looking at the Intel (INTC) earnings numbers without context, it might not look so good. Revenues were down by $828 million to $9.4 billion. Earnings per share were down 2 cents to 33 cents.

Taking this into context of Intel's (INTC) xpected earnings numbers, and it looks good. Intel gave a mid-point forecast in Q3 of $9 billion. Analysts expected $9.06 billion, with 28 cents a share earnings, according to Thomson Reuters.

Additionally, Intel (INTC) has to be expecting that Windows 7 may boost its own earnings with, consumers buying new computers with the new OS. Intel shares were up 4.8% to $21.47 in after-hours trading.

In a conference call with analysts, Otellini said he is seeing a lot of corporate interest around the new operating system, though corporations typically take quite some time before purchasing new software. "I would expect that the evaluation process will happen over the rest of this year, and we will start to see corporate purchases, on a refresh basis, over 2010," he said.