I looked at inventory levels to see how supply and demand were trending at the company level. For Intel, at least, the inventory levels appear to be drifting back toward normal.
Stock performance following the report may come down to the December quarter guidance relative to expectations. There, too, however, the consensus appears beatable. Current estimates call for $10.4 billion in sales, which is just a 7.5% year/year rise. Given the acceleration in industry growth, that rate may well be in line with the overall industry rate despite the aforementioned justification for Intel to lead the group up.
With company inventory levels having peaked, margins potentially having troughed and overall industry health looking likely to improve, I believe Intel’s guidance is not aggressive, and may even be conservative[1].