Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) Stock Price Up 7.9% – Still a Buy?

Shares of Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC) rose 7.9% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $24.83 and last traded at $24.27. Approximately 107,893,700 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 38% from the average daily volume of 78,058,023 shares. The stock had previously closed at $22.48.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

INTC has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Intel from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Intel in a research report on Friday, January 31st. HSBC raised shares of Intel from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Intel from $26.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Intel from $25.00 to $21.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-seven have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.60.

Intel Stock Down 2.2 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $20.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.68. The company has a market capitalization of $102.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.39 and a beta of 1.08.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The chip maker reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.12 by ($0.14). Intel had a negative return on equity of 3.27% and a negative net margin of 35.32%. Sell-side analysts predict that Intel Co. will post -0.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Intel

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of INTC. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Intel in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,246,569,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Intel by 264.0% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 19,617,088 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $393,323,000 after purchasing an additional 14,227,458 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of Intel by 28.2% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 58,469,412 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $1,371,692,000 after buying an additional 12,865,308 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Intel by 27.2% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 44,013,936 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $967,426,000 after buying an additional 9,422,136 shares during the period. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Intel by 224.8% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 10,413,544 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $244,302,000 after buying an additional 7,207,785 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.