TLDR
- Intel (INTC) closed Friday at $89.85, down 6%, and sits 36% below its June peak.
- JPMorgan upgraded the stock to Neutral from Underweight with an $85 price target.
- Intel is up 143% this year, and pre-market trading Monday showed a 4% gain.
- Wall Street is split, with an average Hold rating and a $109.06 target.
- CEO Lip-Bu Tan bought about $10 million of stock in August at $95.
Intel (INTC) stock closed Friday at $89.85, down 6%. The drop leaves it 36% below its June peak.
JPMorgan stepped in Monday with an upgrade to Neutral from Underweight. Its price target is $85, which sits under Friday’s close.
Pre-market trading looked friendlier. Intel was indicated at $93.31, up 4%.
Even after the slide, the stock is up 143% this year. The wider chip sector has fallen 20% to 25% from its highs.
JPMorgan said Intel’s execution in enterprise computing and data centers has improved. It gave credit to CEO Lip-Bu Tan.
The bank also pointed to progress in production yield and advanced packaging. Its 2028 earnings estimates run about 15% above consensus.
What Held JPMorgan Back
This was a cautious upgrade. Since its Underweight call in November 2022, Intel has trailed Broadcom by 115% and AMD by 148%.
Intel’s share of the x86 server CPU market fell from 77% to 53%. In PC CPUs, it slipped from 81% to 68%.
The company expects to lose more server share in the coming quarters. Its foundry arm barely reached $1 billion in annualized revenue in the first half of 2026.
TSMC posted about $150 billion in annualized revenue over the same stretch. That gap is hard to ignore.
Analysts expect Intel to return to profit this year, with earnings of $1.51 per share. Over the last twelve months, it lost $2.30 per share.
Chip Selloff and Analyst Views
Friday’s drop came with a wide selloff. AMD fell 6%, Broadcom lost 5% and TSMC slipped 2%.
The SOX index declined 4%. Investors are questioning AI infrastructure valuations, financing and how long spending will last.
Intel has its own headaches. TSMC suggested it could back customers if Intel’s advanced packaging ramp falls short, and a fire hit its Kiryat Gat site in Israel.
Tigress Financial lifted its target to $145. Piper Sandler started coverage at Neutral with a $110 target, and TD Cowen kept a Hold with $115.
MarketBeat counts one Strong Buy, 20 Buy, 27 Hold and two Sell ratings. The average target is $109.06.
Intel topped estimates in its July 23 report, with earnings of $0.42 per share against $0.21 expected. Revenue rose 25.2% to $16.13 billion.
Tan bought about $10 million of Intel stock in August at $95 each. The stock now trades below its 50-day average of $103.05 and its 200-day average of $101.31.
On Monday, Intel was indicated at $93.31 in pre-market trading, up $3.59, as traders weighed the JPMorgan upgrade.
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