Zacks Research Upgrades Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) to “Strong-Buy”

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) was upgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

INTC has been the topic of several other reports. Mizuho set a $135.00 price target on Intel in a research report on Sunday. Morgan Stanley downgraded Intel from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Northland Securities cut shares of Intel from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Intel from $70.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Roth Mkm upgraded shares of Intel from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, April 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $87.98.

Intel Trading Down 0.8%

NASDAQ INTC opened at $131.22 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $659.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -211.64 and a beta of 2.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 1.85. Intel has a 12 month low of $18.97 and a 12 month high of $141.45. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $106.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $66.82.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The chip maker reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 negative net margin of 5.90% and a positive return on equity of 0.39%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.13 EPS. Intel has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.200-0.200 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Intel will post 0.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Boise April Miller sold 40,256 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.53, for a total value of $4,006,679.68. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 105,077 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,458,313.81. This represents a 27.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.05% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in INTC. iA Global Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Intel by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 593,043 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $21,883,000 after buying an additional 86,189 shares during the period. Whalerock Point Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Intel in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $205,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Intel by 18.3% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 55,521,741 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $1,862,755,000 after acquiring an additional 8,569,812 shares during the period. Heritage Investment Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Intel in the fourth quarter worth $219,000. Finally, Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Intel in the fourth quarter worth $185,000. 64.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Intel

Here are the key news stories impacting Intel this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America raised its price target on Intel to $160 from $135 and kept a Buy rating, citing improving fundamentals and strong AI demand that could support the semiconductor market’s long-term growth. Benzinga
• Positive Sentiment: Mizuho said Intel’s advanced packaging technology could help drive AI data center growth, lifting estimates and its target price as investors reassess Intel’s role in the AI infrastructure supply chain. Article
• Positive Sentiment: Intel has also been boosted by reports of a potential Apple chip partnership and recent analyst commentary that the company’s foundry turnaround and packaging capabilities could attract more outside customers. Article
• Neutral Sentiment: Several market commentary pieces highlighted that Intel’s recent rally may be getting extended, with some investors debating whether the stock has already priced in much of the comeback story. Article
• Negative Sentiment: Intel was also hit during a broader tech and AI selloff tied to weakness in semiconductors, memory-chip concerns, and a marketwide rotation out of high-valuation AI names. Article

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.