Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $20.68, but opened at $23.50. Intel shares last traded at $24.06, with a volume of 72,431,456 shares changing hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on INTC. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Intel from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Intel in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Intel from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America raised shares of Intel from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $25.00 in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Roth Mkm reduced their price objective on shares of Intel from $25.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-eight have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Intel currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $27.04.

Intel Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $104.14 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.49 and a beta of 1.02. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $21.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $21.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The chip maker reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.14). Intel had a negative net margin of 35.32% and a negative return on equity of 3.27%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Intel Co. will post -0.11 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Intel

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Intel by 4.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 92,510,098 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $2,162,891,000 after buying an additional 4,103,553 shares in the last quarter. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC lifted its position in shares of Intel by 211.6% during the fourth quarter. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC now owns 28,898 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $579,000 after purchasing an additional 19,625 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Intel by 4.4% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,827,123 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $113,244,000 after purchasing an additional 204,200 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Intel during the fourth quarter worth approximately $276,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its position in shares of Intel by 0.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 12,635,400 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $296,426,000 after purchasing an additional 31,800 shares in the last quarter. 64.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Intel Company Profile

Intel Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells computing and related products and services worldwide. It operates through Client Computing Group, Data Center and AI, Network and Edge, Mobileye, and Intel Foundry Services segments. The company's products portfolio comprises central processing units and chipsets, system-on-chips (SoCs), and multichip packages; mobile and desktop processors; hardware products comprising graphics processing units (GPUs), domain-specific accelerators, and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs); and memory and storage, connectivity and networking, and other semiconductor products.