Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC)

The financial data indicates a marked downward trend in profitability and returns throughout the observed periods.

Gross Profit Margin

The gross profit margin shows a steady decline from a high of 56.27% in late 2021 to 29.76% by mid-2025. This decrease suggests rising costs of goods sold relative to revenue or pricing pressures negatively impacting core profitability.

Operating Profit Margin

Operating profit margin decreased significantly over the period, starting at around 26.17% and dropping into negative territory after early 2023. Despite slight recoveries around the end of 2023 and early 2024, the margin returned to deep negative levels by mid-2025, reflecting increased operating expenses or declining operational efficiency relative to sales.

Net Profit Margin

The net profit margin follows a similar declining pattern, initially peaking at 31.68% in early 2022 but falling sharply into negative percentages from 2023 onward. The continued decline into the negative territory by mid-2025 indicates net losses, highlighting substantial challenges in maintaining profitability after all expenses, taxes, and interest.

Return on Equity (ROE)

ROE trends downward from above 23% in early 2021 to negative values from 2023 forward, reaching approximately -20.95% by mid-2025. This reflects diminishing returns generated on shareholders’ equity, possibly due to declining net income coupled with historical equity levels.

Return on Assets (ROA)

The ROA shows a parallel decline, falling from approximately 12.35% in early 2021 to around -10.65% in mid-2025. This indicates decreasing efficiency in asset utilization to generate profits, corroborating the observed reduction in net income and operational effectiveness.

Overall, the data reveals deteriorating financial performance over the course of these quarterly periods. Profitability margins have contracted significantly, transitioning from strong positive figures into sustained losses. Both return on equity and assets confirm weakened financial returns, suggesting challenges in operational management, cost control, and possibly external market or economic factors impacting results adversely.

Net Revenue Trend

The net revenue demonstrates a declining trend from early 2021 through mid-2022, dropping from approximately $19.7 billion in March 2021 to around $14 billion by December 2022. This represents a significant reduction in sales. Following this period, revenue fluctuates modestly, showing minor increases and decreases without a sustained recovery, remaining between roughly $12.6 billion and $14.3 billion from 2023 to mid-2025.

Gross Margin Behavior

The gross margin in absolute dollar terms declines sharply from early 2021, starting at about $10.9 billion, falling steeply through 2022 to a low around $5.5 billion by December 2022. It remains low throughout 2023 and 2024, with notable volatility. There are intermittent partial rebounds, such as increases in late 2023 and some quarters in 2024, but these gains are neither sustained nor do they restore margins to previous peak levels.

Gross Profit Margin Percentage

The gross profit margin percentage steadily declines over the entire period, starting from a high of approximately 55.6% in mid-2021 and falling below 30% by mid-2025. This steady erosion indicates decreasing profitability on sales, reflecting either increased cost of goods sold or pricing pressures. The most pronounced deterioration occurs between mid-2021 and early 2023, with further gradual declines thereafter.

Overall Observations

The combined analysis of net revenue and gross margin suggests challenges with both top-line performance and cost management. The decrease in net revenue coincides with a reduction in gross margin, exacerbated by a falling gross profit margin percentage, pointing to margin compression. The intermittent recovery attempts in gross margin dollars do not correspond to sustainable revenue growth, indicating potential issues in maintaining scale or cost efficiency. By mid-2025, the financial data reflects a lower profitability environment compared to the 2021 baseline.

Net Revenue Trends

The net revenue demonstrated a generally declining trend from March 2021 through December 2022, decreasing from approximately 19,673 million USD to 14,042 million USD. This downward trajectory reflects a significant reduction in revenue over the period. However, from April 2023 onwards, there is a partial recovery with fluctuations, as revenue varied between 11,715 million USD and 15,406 million USD before stabilizing around 12,600 to 14,200 million USD in the most recent quarters.

Operating Income (Loss) Trends

Operating income exhibited substantial volatility and a downward shift over the periods analyzed. Initially, from March 2021 to April 2022, operating income remained positive and relatively robust, peaking at 5,546 million USD in June 2021. From mid-2022 onward, operating income turned negative, indicating operational losses that intensified over time, with the most severe loss recorded in September 2024 at -9,057 million USD. Despite some positive fluctuations, such as a brief recovery to 2,585 million USD in December 2023, the overall trend remained negative, indicating operational challenges and fluctuating profitability.

Operating Profit Margin Analysis

Operating profit margin followed a similar pattern to operating income, beginning with strong, healthy margins between 24% and 26% in 2021 and early 2022. Margins deteriorated significantly starting in the second quarter of 2022, declining sharply to below 20% and eventually turning negative starting in the first quarter of 2023. Margins fluctuated in negative territory for most subsequent quarters, with the lowest point at -22.84% in June 2025. This indicates shrinking operational efficiency and worsening profitability relative to revenue.

Overall Financial Performance Insights

The data reveals a period of operational strength and solid revenue in early 2021, followed by a marked deterioration in both revenue and profitability beginning mid-2022. The continued negative operating income and margins highlight ongoing challenges in controlling costs or generating sufficient revenue growth. While some temporary rebounds in operating income were observed, these did not sustain positive margins. The consistent negative margins and losses into 2025 suggest persistent operational difficulties and a need for strategic adjustments to restore profitability.

The financial data reveals several notable trends and fluctuations in the company's net income, net revenue, and net profit margin over multiple quarters.

Net Income (Loss) Attributable

The net income exhibited considerable volatility. Initial quarters showed strong positive earnings, peaking at 8,113 million US dollars in April 2022. However, beginning mid-2022, net income turned negative at various points, with significant losses recorded in multiple later quarters. Notably, there was a substantial loss of -16,639 million US dollars in September 2024, representing an exceptional decline. Following this extreme loss, net income remained negative or marginally positive but never reverted to the higher positive levels seen earlier in the period.

Net Revenue

Net revenue showed a general declining trend from March 2021 through mid-2023, falling from 19,673 million to approximately 11,715 million US dollars. After mid-2023, revenue stabilized somewhat and exhibited slight recovery fluctuations, reaching 14,260 million US dollars by the end of 2024, although it did not return to the initial higher levels seen at the beginning of the period. The revenue pattern suggests difficulties in maintaining consistent top-line growth during the analyzed timeframe.

Net Profit Margin

The net profit margin followed the trends observed in net income, starting high at nearly 24% and peaking at over 31% in early 2022. After this peak, the margin declined sharply and became negative in multiple quarters thereafter, correlating with the losses reported. The largest negative margin recorded was -38.64% in June 2025, reflecting severe profitability challenges. Despite occasional quarters showing modest positive margins post-peak, the overall trend points to deteriorating profitability over time.

In summary, the data reflects strong financial performance in the early quarters, followed by a pronounced downturn marked by significant net losses and declining profit margins. Revenue experienced a downward trajectory initially, with some recovery attempts that failed to reach prior levels. The persistent negative profitability in later quarters underlines the challenges faced in maintaining operational efficiency and financial health during the period analyzed.

The financial data reveals significant fluctuations in the net income and return on equity (ROE) of the company over the analyzed time frame, reflecting a volatile profitability pattern. Stockholders’ equity has generally shown a rising trend, albeit with some periods of decline.

Net Income (Loss) Attributable to Intel

Net income displayed a strong growth trajectory during the initial periods, increasing from $3,361 million in March 2021 to a peak of $8,113 million in April 2022. A sharp decline followed, resulting in a loss of $454 million by July 2022, marking the beginning of irregular and inconsistent profitability. Subsequent quarters showed fluctuating results with intermittent profits and losses, including significant negative values such as a loss of $16,639 million by September 2024. The latter periods continue to show net losses with some occasional recovery, but overall indicate diminished and unstable earnings.

Total Intel Stockholders’ Equity

Stockholders’ equity increased consistently from approximately $79,807 million in March 2021 to a peak around $115,229 million in June 2024. After this peak, equity experienced a moderate decline, settling near $97,883 million by June 2025. This trend suggests the company was able to build its equity base strongly for most of the period before a contraction in the last few quarters.

Return on Equity (ROE)

ROE started at a robust level of 23.3% in March 2021, maintaining levels above 20% through April 2022. From mid-2022, ROE showed a distinct downtrend, falling to 7.9% by December 2022 and then sinking below zero starting in April 2023. The negative ROE persists through to June 2025, reaching as low as -20.95%, indicating that the company was generating negative returns on its equity during this period. This decline in ROE aligns with the volatility and eventual losses observed in net income.

Overall, the data reflects that the company experienced substantial profitability in the early quarters, followed by heightened volatility leading to large losses and negative returns on equity in recent periods. Despite early increases in stockholders’ equity, the financial performance deterioration eventually exerted downward pressure on equity levels. This pattern signals challenges in sustaining profitable operations and generating shareholder value in the latest quarters.

The analysis of the financial data reveals several notable trends in the company's performance over the provided periods, particularly focusing on net income, total assets, and return on assets (ROA).

Net Income (Loss) Trends

The net income exhibits significant volatility throughout the timeline. Initially, there is a strong positive trend with net income rising from 3,361 million USD in the first quarter to a peak of 8,113 million USD in April 2022. However, this is followed by a sharp reversal as net income turns negative in several quarters, with notable losses occurring in December 2021 (-664 million USD), and in subsequent periods, including a substantial decline to -16,639 million USD in September 2024. The negative values suggest periods of operational or market challenges impacting profitability. Some intermittent quarters show recoveries with positive net income, indicating fluctuating performance rather than a consistent trend.

Total Assets Evolution

Total assets demonstrate a generally increasing trajectory, moving from 150,622 million USD at the start to a high of 206,205 million USD in June 2024. There are minor fluctuations, with slight declines in certain quarters (e.g., from 206,205 million USD in mid-2024 to 192,242 million USD in early 2025), but the overall trend indicates asset growth over the period. This could reflect investments in capacity, acquisitions, or capital expenditures aimed at supporting the company's operations or strategic initiatives.

Return on Assets (ROA) Pattern

ROA begins the period at a strong performance level, consistently over 11% in the first several quarters, peaking at approximately 13.96% in April 2022. Thereafter, ROA declines sharply, reflecting the deteriorating profitability relative to the asset base. It crosses into negative territory starting in early 2023 and reaches deep negative levels towards late 2024 and mid-2025, bottoming near -10.65%. This downturn in ROA aligns with the observed net income losses, indicating decreased efficiency in generating earnings from assets.

Insights and Implications

The data suggest a period of initial robust earnings growth followed by significant financial stress affecting profitability. Despite the increase in total assets, the company struggles to convert these assets into positive earnings in recent quarters, as shown by the persistent negative ROA and net income losses. This could be due to a range of factors such as market competition, increased costs, operational inefficiencies, or one-time charges. The fluctuations highlight potential challenges in maintaining operational profitability while scaling or investing in assets.