Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) Trading Up 2.4% After Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• Intel shares rose 2.4% after Citigroup lifted its price target from $95 to $130 and reiterated a Buy rating, helping push the stock as high as $113.07 during trading.
• Analyst sentiment around Intel has improved across several firms, with multiple upgrades and higher targets tied to optimism about AI-driven CPU demand and the company’s foundry turnaround. Still, MarketBeat notes the overall consensus rating remains Hold with an average target price of $81.52.
• Recent earnings were solid, with Intel reporting EPS of $0.29 versus $0.01 expected and revenue of $13.58 billion, above estimates. The company also said its foundry business is gaining momentum and expects more customer commitments in the second half of the year.

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC - Get Free Report)'s stock price was up 2.4% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $95.00 to $130.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Intel traded as high as $113.07 and last traded at $110.80. Approximately 149,032,985 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 24% from the average daily volume of 120,250,703 shares. The stock had previously closed at $108.17.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on INTC. Citic Securities upgraded Intel from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $38.90 to $60.30 in a research report on Monday, January 26th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Intel from an "underperform" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $60.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. KGI Securities cut Intel from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $71.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Intel in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Seaport Research Partners increased their price objective on Intel from $65.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $81.52.

Insider Buying and Selling at Intel

In other news, EVP Boise April Miller sold 40,256 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.53, for a total value of $4,006,679.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 105,077 shares in the company, valued at $10,458,313.81. This trade represents a 27.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.05% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Trending Headlines about Intel

Here are the key news stories impacting Intel this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Intel’s CEO said the foundry business is gaining momentum, yields are improving, and the company expects commitments from multiple foundry customers in the second half of the year, reinforcing the turnaround narrative. Intel CEO says foundry business is gaining momentum as customer interest grows
• Positive Sentiment: Citi raised its price target on Intel to $130 from $95 and kept a Buy rating, citing a larger CPU addressable market tied to agentic AI workloads. The $132 Billion Infrastructure Pivot You Might Have Missed
• Positive Sentiment: Another note said Intel could benefit from a $131 billion AI CPU opportunity by 2030, with analysts arguing the stock still has room to run after the recent rally. Citi Sees Massive $131 Billion AI Opportunity for Intel Stock by 2030
• Positive Sentiment: Reports also said Intel and Qualcomm are eyeing AI chip startup Tenstorrent in a potential $5 billion-plus deal, highlighting strategic competition for AI semiconductor assets. Intel, Qualcomm Eye AI Chip Startup Tenstorrent
• Positive Sentiment: Intel is benefiting from broader semiconductor enthusiasm, with coverage pointing to rising AI CPU demand, strong investor interest, and hedge-fund buying. As a New CPU Surge Takes Wall Street, Tiger Global Just Took a New Stake in Intel Stock
• Neutral Sentiment: Some commentary argues Intel has already had a huge run and is increasingly viewed as a crowded trade, which could limit upside in the near term. Everyone Owns Chip Stocks. That Could Be a Problem for Intel and Others.
• Negative Sentiment: Several articles warned that AI-chip stocks, including Intel, could face a sharp reversal as bond yields rise and traders crowd into the sector ahead of Nvidia earnings. AMD, Broadcom and Qualcomm Lead Chip Stock Sell-Off Ahead of Nvidia Earnings

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in INTC. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Intel by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 404,522,308 shares of the chip maker's stock valued at $14,926,873,000 after buying an additional 13,692,624 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Intel by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 208,536,784 shares of the chip maker's stock valued at $7,695,007,000 after buying an additional 5,714,400 shares during the period. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Intel by 20.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 104,060,268 shares of the chip maker's stock valued at $3,839,833,000 after buying an additional 17,557,147 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Intel by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 101,931,512 shares of the chip maker's stock valued at $3,744,406,000 after buying an additional 3,124,798 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Intel by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 65,249,269 shares of the chip maker's stock valued at $2,407,698,000 after purchasing an additional 11,056,090 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.53% of the company's stock.

Intel Stock Up 2.4%

The firm has a market capitalization of $556.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -178.71 and a beta of 2.18. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $68.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $51.38.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The chip maker reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $13.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.32 billion. Intel had a positive return on equity of 0.39% and a negative net margin of 5.90%.The company's revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.13 EPS. Intel has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.200-0.200 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Intel Corporation will post 0.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Intel Company Profile

Intel Corporation, founded in 1968 by Robert Noyce and Gordon E. Moore and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is a leading global designer and manufacturer of semiconductor products. The company is historically notable for introducing the first commercial microprocessor and for driving the x86 architecture that underpins many personal computers and servers. Intel's core business spans the design, fabrication and marketing of processors, chipsets and related components for a wide range of computing applications.

Intel's product portfolio includes client and mobile processors marketed under brands such as Intel Core and Pentium, as well as high-performance Xeon processors for data centers and cloud infrastructure.

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