Earnings roundup: Intel profit falls, but tops estimates

Intel Corp.’s fourth-quarter profit plunged 39 percent as the world’s largest chip maker endured a painful price war with much-smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and continued to pay for a massive restructuring.

Still, Intel said Tuesday it sold record numbers of microprocessors and flash memory chips and the company managed to beat analysts’ tepid expectations.

Intel said net income for the period ended Dec. 30 was $1.5 billion, or 26 cents per share, versus $2.45 billion, or 40 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.

Revenue for the quarter was $9.7 billion, down 5 percent from $10.2 billion a year ago.

Excluding one-time charges, Intel said it earned $1.7 billion, or 30 cents per share, beating analyst estimates.

Analysts were expecting the company to earn 25 cents per share on $9.44 billion in revenue for the quarter, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.

“Wells Fargo & Co. fattened its profit margins and pocketed more customer service fees to boost its fourth-quarter earnings 13 percent. while U.S. Bancorp lowered its problem loans and expenses to eke out a more-modest improvement.

At Wells Fargo, the deepening real estate slump pinched Well Fargo’s mortgage revenue, but the nation’s fifth largest bank overcame the slowdown by plumbing other financial pipelines to post a fourth-quarter profit of $2.18 billion, or 64 cents per share. That compared with net income of $1.93 billion, or 57 cents per share, a year earlier.

U.S. Bancorp, the nation’s seventh largest financial institution, earned $1.19 billion, or 66 cents per share, in the fourth quarter. That represented a 4 percent increase from net income of $1.14 billion, or 62 cents per share.

Revenue was $3.42 billion, a 3 percent increase from $3.33 billion in the previous year.

Although the earnings fell a penny below analyst projections, U.S. Bancorp shares gained 20 cents, 0.6 percent, to $35.75 on the NYSE.

“About 250 workers at a Chrysler Group plant that makes V-8 engines will be furloughed next week as the company reduces engine production to match truck manufacturing cuts, a company official said.

The job cuts at the Mack Avenue Engine 1 plant in Detroit come as the struggling company is studying all of its operations as part of a restructuring plan that will include more job cuts and plant closures. Details of the full plan are to be made public when DaimlerChrysler AG releases its 2006 earnings in February.