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Technology

Intel Shares Fall 17% After Hours as Weak Fourth-Quarter Outlook Overshadows Profit Beat

Intel shares fell 17% in after-hours trading Oct. 29 after the chipmaker forecast fourth-quarter earnings and revenue well below Wall Street estimates, despite a third-quarter adjusted profit that beat forecasts.

By admin Oct. 29, 2026 · 10:46 PM ET 2 min read

Workers in white clean-room suits operating chip-making equipment in a semiconductor factory
Workers in white clean-room suits operating chip-making equipment in a semiconductor factory

Intel shares fell 17 percent to $76.85 in after-hours trading on Thursday after the chipmaker issued a fourth-quarter outlook well short of Wall Street forecasts, even though its third-quarter adjusted profit beat estimates. The drop followed a regular session in which the stock closed down 3.6 percent at $92.07, after more than doubling in price this year through the close, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

For the current fourth quarter, Intel projected adjusted earnings of 25 cents a share on revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected 45 cents a share on $17.29 billion of revenue. The gap between the company’s outlook and those forecasts drove the after-hours slide.

Gloved hands holding a round silicon wafer covered in a grid of circuits

The third quarter itself was mixed. Intel reported a profit of $3.32 billion, or 60 cents a share, down from $4.06 billion, or 90 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding certain one-time items, adjusted earnings were 52 cents a share, above the 41 cents analysts polled by FactSet had expected. Revenue grew 21 percent to $16.51 billion, just below the $16.56 billion analysts expected.

Data center growth, PC weakness

Revenue from Intel’s data center and artificial intelligence segment surged 78 percent to $7.3 billion in the quarter. The client computing and physical AI group moved the other way, with revenue down 5 percent to $8.1 billion. Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan said the company has seen headwinds in the personal computer market, and Intel said it is giving priority to building more capacity for its Xeon line of server processors to meet what Tan called “extraordinary demand.”

Black computer processor chips mounted on a dark circuit board

Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner projected that the slowdown in personal computers will last through at least the first six months of 2027. That outlook, combined with the lower fourth-quarter revenue forecast, overshadowed the stronger profit result and the growth in data center sales in the minds of after-hours traders.

What the outlook means for the quarter

A long aisle between two rows of server racks with blinking lights in a data center

Intel’s forecast points to a smaller fourth quarter than analysts had modeled, with revenue at the midpoint of its range about $1.8 billion below the FactSet consensus and adjusted earnings nearly half the expected level. The company entered the report with its stock sharply higher for the year, leaving little room for a forecast that fell short on both sales and profit.

Reporting based on coverage by Dow Jones Newswires via Morningstar.

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