Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) was upgraded by analysts at Piper Jaffray Cos. from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, TheFlyOnTheWall.com reports. The firm currently has a $22.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $20.00. Piper Jaffray Cos.’s price target indicates a potential upside of 0.39% from the stock’s previous close.
The analysts wrote, “The chip industry is now solidly in the post-PC era, but PCs are not going away anytime soon. We expect a modest corporate refresh cycle driven by the end of support for Windows XP in April 2014 coupled with the release of Windows 8.1 in Q4. In addition, with the 2H13 launch of Bay Trail, Intel now has a low-end processor for tablets with good enough performance for consumers. While this is likely to cannibalize sales of some notebooks, it would replace low-end consumer notebooks not high-end corporate machines. We lift our CY14 estimates slightly and expect 2014 revenue to grow in the mid-single digits after two years of decline. IDF and analyst day could be catalysts for shares. We still see LT strategic issues for the company but with a 4.1% dividend yield, we believe further downside is limited and move to Neutral with a $22 PT.”
Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) traded up 3.26% on Monday, hitting $22.63. 16,169,390 shares of the company’s stock traded hands. Intel Corp. has a 52-week low of $19.23 and a 52-week high of $26.34. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $23.19 and a 200-day moving average of $22.78. The company has a market cap of $112.7 billion and a P/E ratio of 11.84. Intel Corp. also was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders purchased 74,484 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 138% compared to the typical volume of 31,243 put options.
A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on INTC. Analysts at Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Intel Corp. from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note to investors on Thursday. They now have a $23.00 price target on the stock, down previously from $26.00. Separately, analysts at TheStreet reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Intel Corp. in a research note to investors on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, analysts at Wells Fargo & Co. reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Intel Corp. in a research note to investors on Monday, August 12th. They now have a $33.00 price target on the stock.
Six analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. The company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.95.
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which is scheduled for Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.11%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 5th.
Intel Corporation designs and manufactures integrated digital technology platforms. A platform consists of a microprocessor and chipset.
