Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) Shares Up 1.3% – Time to Buy?

Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC)’s stock price shot up 1.3% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $26.41 and last traded at $26.01. 48,046,892 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 32% from the average session volume of 70,942,317 shares. The stock had previously closed at $25.69.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

INTC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on Intel from $25.00 to $21.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Intel from $23.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Bank of America raised shares of Intel from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $19.00 to $25.00 in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Intel from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on Intel from $26.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-eight have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.04.

Intel Stock Performance

The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $21.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.90. The stock has a market cap of $113.19 billion, a PE ratio of -5.98 and a beta of 1.02. 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 announced its quarterly 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 return on equity of 3.27% and a negative net margin of 35.32%. Equities analysts predict that Intel Co. will post -0.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Intel

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in INTC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Intel by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 369,099,204 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $7,400,439,000 after purchasing an additional 6,143,164 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Intel by 2.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 197,958,739 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $4,644,112,000 after buying an additional 5,417,753 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Intel by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,488,444 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $1,909,761,000 after buying an additional 2,978,346 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Intel by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 63,263,339 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $1,268,430,000 after acquiring an additional 4,793,927 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Intel during the 4th quarter valued at $1,246,569,000. 64.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Intel

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.