Morgan Stanley Cuts Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) Price Target to $36.00

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) had its price objective cut by Morgan Stanley from $48.00 to $36.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the chip maker’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. HSBC decreased their target price on Intel from $44.00 to $37.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Benchmark restated a buy rating and issued a $62.00 price target on shares of Intel in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Wedbush restated a neutral rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Intel in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Intel from $47.50 to $40.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Intel from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Monday, April 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $39.75.

Intel Stock Down 9.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:INTC opened at $31.88 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.54. Intel has a 1 year low of $26.85 and a 1 year high of $51.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $134.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.21, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.30.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The chip maker reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.27. Intel had a return on equity of 2.22% and a net margin of 7.36%. The business had revenue of $15.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.10 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Intel will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Intel Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be given a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 6th. Intel’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.08%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Patrick P. Gelsinger bought 2,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $42.74 per share, with a total value of $119,672.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 31,275 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,336,693.50. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Intel by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 385,787,907 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $19,385,842,000 after purchasing an additional 4,678,169 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of Intel by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 96,617,951 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $4,855,099,000 after purchasing an additional 318,495 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its stake in shares of Intel by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 75,237,927 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $3,780,706,000 after purchasing an additional 475,636 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Intel in the fourth quarter worth $2,424,202,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Intel by 3.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 46,003,776 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $1,635,434,000 after buying an additional 1,626,127 shares in the last quarter. 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.