10 brokerages have issued price-target cuts to Intel after its ugly earnings report
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) is the talk of Wall Street this morning, after an ugly quarterly report. INTC is down 7.3% to trade at $27.71 at last check, and seeing a flurry of options and analyst activity in response.
The chipmaker reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that were well wide of Wall Street's estimates. The company also forecasted a loss for the current quarter, following declines in sales, profit, and gross margin. The surprise forecast loss has sent the semiconductor sector spiraling today-- both Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Nvidia (NVDA) were lower premarket but have pared those losses at the open.
Options traders are blasting Intel stock from both sides of the aisle. Within the first half hour of trading, 110,000 calls and 103,000 puts have been exchanged, volume that's 16 times the average intraday amount. The most activity is taking place at the weekly 1/27 28- and 27.50-strike puts.
No fewer than 10 brokerage firms have issued bear notes, including Bernstein's newly established price target of $20 adjusted down from $23. That's notable because coming into today, 23 of 26 firms already sported "hold" or worse recommendations, while the average 12-month price target stood roughly 4.3% above Thursday night's close of $28.37. That's how bad the report was-- already bearish analysts got even more bearish.
Today's drop is pacing to be the stock's worst single-session decline since July 29, and has put Intel stock back within a chip-shot of its Oct. 13 eight year lows. Intel stock --one of the worst Dow stocks in 2022 -- is now down 43.6% in the last 12 months and is currently on the short-sale restricted list.