Intel Corp. was praised for replacing its CEO as several analysts upgraded the chip giants’ stock.
Intel INTC shares,
rose 5.1% in Thursday morning trading, building on gains of 7.0% from Wednesday’s session after the company announced that VMware Inc. VMW,
Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger would take the helm of Intels.
Intel has suffered in recent years from a series of missteps that have caused the company to lose its leadership in process technology. Even though analysts seemed to agree that there was no quick answer to the company’s current challenges, they are optimistic that Gelsingers’ technological background and decades of prior experience at Intel make it well suited for s ‘tackle the problems ahead.
With 30 years at Intel, including in the role of Chief Technology Officer, then a successful stint at VMware, he brings experience more relevant to the unique requirements of the Intel job than any other candidate, wrote Morgan Stanley analyst John. Moore.
He improved the even-weighted overweight stock and raised his price target to $ 70 from $ 60 in a Thursday morning note titled: No quick fixes, but with Gelsinger, there is light at the end of the tunnel .
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BMO Capital Markets analyst Ambrish Srivastava took a similar view. We have seen time and time again how the right person at the helm can influence change, he wrote. While we don’t expect big changes in the short term, the wealth of experience Pat Gelsinger brings from his former tenure at Intel as well as his experience managing VMware, we believe he is. the right person who can face daunting, but not overwhelming, challenges. challenges facing Intel.
Srivastava improved Intels stocks to outperform market performance and raised its price target to $ 70 from $ 50, arguing that even a few more correct steps should act as a catalyst for stocks. At the same time, it downgraded the shares of its rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD,
Underperforming relative to market performance, writing that while AMD has performed very well lately, its stocks also appear to have benefited from poor execution at Intel.
Another upgrade came from Cowen & Co. analyst Matthew Ramsay, who wrote about the restored balance at Intel now that an Intel-developed technologist is back at the helm.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of hiring Mr. Gelsingers, not only for Intel, but also for the U.S. tech / semiconductor industry, he said in a note to clients. After years of letting its manufacturing leadership evaporate, we have long argued that what was once the world’s largest semiconductor supplier needed a technology leader to solve its technological problems, and we are there. have succeeded.
According to Ramsays, the hire suggests focusing on the internal 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer roadmaps that are of paramount importance to Intels’s turnaround and US technology leadership. Ramsay raised his rating on Intels shares to outperform market performance and raised his price target to $ 75 from $ 50.
Of the 38 analysts tracked by FactSet who cover Intels stocks, 13 have buy ratings, 16 hold ratings and 9 have sell ratings, with an average price target of $ 57.03.
Intel shares have gained 11.2% in the past three months as the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
increased by 9.4%.
