Which company earnings surprised investors this quarter?

Speaking of corporate earnings… Let’s take a look at companies that reported big earnings surprises this quarter.

Filtering through some of the companies…

Pinduoduo (NASDAQ:PDD) and JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) both reported strong earnings — but Chinese-listed stocks (ADRs) are incredibly volatile right now, given US-Chinese tensions. So let’s skip those.

$SNOW had a big earnings beat, but skip the money-loser, for now. $EQIX and $AMT are real-estate investment trusts, so earnings beats don’t tell the full story. Next.

Who’s catching our eyes…

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) is one of the largest US chipmakers once known to be the semiconductor industry’s gold standard — but has struggled for many years.

Near the end of October, Intel beat earnings by a wide margin, sending their stock up over 10% since. But compared to competitors AMD and Nvidia, Intel’s stock returns have been a major disappointment over the past five years. Just how bad?

Intel is a highly debated stock with opposing views:

📉 “Intel has structural problems and is losing market share to competitors.”

Falling electronic sales are severely impacting semiconductor demand, making their future look highly uncertain.

• For the fourth quarter, Intel reduced its earnings forecast by more than half of what analysts expected.
• The company has been losing market share to Nvidia and AMD, with declining profit margins.

📈 “Intel is trading at cheap levels and is a potential turnaround story.”

After a 45% decline this year, the stock is trading at its lowest since 2014, with lower valuations than its competitors.

• In 2021, Intel brought in a new CEO, Patrick Gelsinger. The company is downsizing and planning layoffs while cutting underperforming product lines.
• The price has fallen so low it’s got a 5% dividend yield. But it’s uncertain whether they’ll cut the dividend.

Underpromising and overdelivering is the way to go — but turning around a $120B company with

120K employees isn’t easy. And it’s far too early to say how much chip demand will fall. Let’s give it another quarter.