(Bloomberg/Ian King) — Intel Corp. shares jumped after the chipmaker returned to profitability and gave an upbeat revenue forecast, suggesting that it’s making progress on a long and challenging comeback attempt.

Fourth-quarter sales will be roughly $13.3 billion, the company said in a statement Thursday. Though that was just below Wall Street’s average estimate, some analysts were still including revenue from a unit that Intel just spun off — money that wasn’t part of the company’s forecast.

Shares rose 3.9% to $39.66 at 9:50 a.m. in New York on Friday.

The outlook signals that Intel is on the right track following a turbulent year. In the stretch of a few months, new Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan secured an unconventional investment from the US government — a transaction brokered

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