Intel Corp. lowered its profit forecast for its fiscal first quarter Monday, blaming the shortfall on a steeper-than-expected drop in prices for memory chips.

The Santa Clara-based company, the world’s largest semiconductor maker, said slumping prices for a type of memory called NAND flash depressed profits more than anticipated. NAND flash is commonly used in portable electronic devices like digital cameras and MP3 players.

Intel said its gross profit margin — a key measure of profitability that gauges a company’s ability to control manufacturing costs — would come in at 54 percent of revenues, plus or minus a percentage point. That’s down from its previous forecast of 56 percent, plus or minus a couple percentage points.

The company said its other guidance had not changed, including its expectation of revenue within $9.4 billion (EU6.18 billion) and $10 billion (EU6.58 billion) for the quarter. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial on average expect Intel to ring up sales of $9.7 billion

The company is expected to supply more details on the shortfall Wednesday during a meeting with investors at its Silicon Valley headquarters.

Intel’s announcement reflects a trend that has benefited makers of personal computers and electronic gadgets but cut into chip makers’ profits.

Intel’s primary business is making microprocessors — the brains of personal computers — but it plus makes memory chips. The company’s microprocessor business is thriving from robust PC demand, but Monday’s announcement illustrates that Intel is still vulnerable to swings in the volatile memory market, which has been under intense pricing pressure considering of oversupply.

Other companies have plus been hurt by falling memory-chip prices.

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest manufacturer of memory chips, saw its profit sink more than 6 percent last year, dragged down by plunging prices for NAND flash chips and DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, the most common…

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