Intel’s $11.1 Billion Quarter

Unlike its second quarter, Intel’s third wasn’t “the best quarter in the company’s 42-year history.” But it was pretty good, nonetheless–despite its recently reduced sales forecast. And it did set a new record for revenue, breaking the $11 billion mark for the first time.

Analysts had been expecting the company to report earnings of 50 cents a share, on revenue of $11 billion, according to a consensus survey by Thomson Reuters. Intel (INTC) turned in third quarter earnings of 52 cents a share on revenue of $11.1 billion. The company said it sees fourth-quarter sales hitting $11.1 billion, plus or minus $400 million. Consensus forecast for the period is $11.32 billion.

Evidently, the “weaker than expected demand for consumer PCs in mature markets” that CEO Paul Otellini warned of last month isn’t quite as weak as he’d thought. Certainly, in today’s earnings release, he sounded quite a bit more optimistic. “These results were driven by solid demand from corporate customers, sales of our leadership products and continued growth in emerging markets,” he said. “Looking forward, we continue to see healthy worldwide demand for computing products of all types…”