Applied Materials recorded a jump in both profit and sales in the fiscal fourth quarter, fueled by artificial intelligence-driven demand for semiconductor services.

The semiconductor company posted a profit of $2.72 billion, or $3.40 a share, compared with $1.90 billion, or $2.38 a share, a year earlier.

Stripping out certain one-time items, adjusted per-share earnings were $4.16, ahead of the $4.06 anticipated by analysts, according to FactSet.

Revenue climbed 53% to $10.41 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet forecast revenue of $10.30 billion.

Applied Materials is on track to grow its semiconductor systems business more than 40% this calendar year, Chief Executive Gary Dickerson said. Sales in the segment jumped 64% to nearly $8 billion in the most recent quarter.

"AI continues to fuel strong incremental demand for semiconductors and Applied has built the most-enabling portfolio to advance the AI-computing roadmap, putting us in a great position for multi-year revenue and profit growth," he said.

For the current first quarter of its new fiscal year, Applied Materials expects revenue to be $11.10 billion, plus or minus $500 million. It anticipates adjusted earnings per share of $4.35, plus or minus 20 cents a share.

The midpoints of both projections are ahead of Wall Street consensus estimates. Analysts were forecasting $10.85 billion in sales and $4.24 a share in adjusted earnings.