As an all-around barometer of the tech sector, as well as a chipmaker, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is one of the cases where revenue and earnings both managed to best expectations.
Excluding the effects of a European Commission fine, Intel earned $1 billion or 18 cents per share in the second quarter.
Although the numbers handily beat analysts' estimates of 8 cents per share, they were still 36% lower than the profit of 28 cents per share the same period last year.
One thing I did like seeing in Intel's earnings report: Second-quarter sales grew 12$ over the previous quarter to $8 billion, which was well above Wall Street's forecast for sales of $7.284 billion.
I currently rate Intel a C, or hold.
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