Intel executives say the company's top line is ready to rebound as investments in new areas, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), offset the declines in the PC business.

For its second quarter, which ended July 2, the company met its own forecast by reporting revenues of $13.5 billion. But that marked the third consecutive quarter of declining revenues as the PC market continues to shrink.

CEO Brian Krzanich's answer to that trend was a restructuring announced in April. In addition to cutting jobs, Krzanich vowed to re-prioritize R&D and make Intel more of a presence in the cloud.

Some of those new directions had already been established and seem to be paying off.

Intel is forecasting that growth for the full year 2016 will be in low single digits, led by data center and IoT products as well as memory, including the new 3D XPoint memory technology. The new areas will begin offsetting the declines in PC sales, CFO Stacy Smith said on today's conference calls with investors.

The company's Internet of Things group reported second-quarter revenues of $572 million, up slightly from $559 million in the same quarter a year ago.

Security is another growth area for Intel, with second-quarter revenues of $537 million compared with $488 million a year ago.

And while it wasn't noticeable in the earnings, officials noted that during the quarter, Intel shipped silicon photonics for revenue for the first time. Silicon photonics — using glass and lasers to replace the copper connections found inside chips or on boards — have been a research project at the company for more than a decade.

Overall, Intel's $13.5 billion in revenues did beat the $13.2 billion the company reported a year ago. Net income for the second quarter was $1.3 billion, or 27 cents per share, compared with $2.7 billion, or 55 cents per share, a year ago — a decline caused by restructuring charges.

Non-GAAP earnings per share of 59 cents beat the analyst consensus of 53 cents as tallied by Thomson Financial.

Intel shares were down 3 percent at $34.50 in after-hours trading.