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

Shares of Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC) gapped up prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $19.67, but opened at $21.26. Intel shares last traded at $21.43, with a volume of 50,983,316 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays cut their price target on Intel from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target on shares of Intel in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “sell” rating and set a $17.00 price target on shares of Intel in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Northland Securities reduced their price target on Intel from $42.00 to $28.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $25.00 price target (down previously from $28.00) on shares of Intel in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-seven have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $28.81.

Intel Stock Performance

The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $21.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $23.12. The company has a market capitalization of $92.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.77, a PEG ratio of 9.59 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The chip maker reported ($0.46) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.02) by ($0.44). The business had revenue of $13.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.02 billion. Intel had a negative return on equity of 1.71% and a negative net margin of 29.42%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Intel Co. will post -0.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Intel

In other news, EVP Michelle Johnston Holthaus sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.00, for a total transaction of $650,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 273,258 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,104,708. This trade represents a 8.38 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Intel

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Intel during the second quarter worth approximately $2,178,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Intel by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 92,510,098 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $2,162,891,000 after purchasing an additional 4,103,553 shares during the last quarter. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC boosted its holdings in Intel by 211.6% in the 4th quarter. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC now owns 28,898 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $579,000 after purchasing an additional 19,625 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Intel by 4.4% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Intel during the fourth quarter valued at about $276,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.53% of the company’s stock.

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.