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Tag: INTC

  • IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd Raises Position in Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC)

    IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd Raises Position in Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC)

    IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd grew its stake in Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTCFree Report) by 9.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 70,855 shares of the chip maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,132 shares during the quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd’s holdings in Intel were worth $1,662,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

    Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Intel by 16.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 112,093,582 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $4,951,174,000 after acquiring an additional 15,475,631 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Intel by 60.5% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 34,591,800 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $1,071,308,000 after purchasing an additional 13,035,566 shares during the last quarter. Davis Selected Advisers grew its position in Intel by 86.2% in the 2nd quarter. Davis Selected Advisers now owns 12,642,316 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $391,533,000 after purchasing an additional 5,851,098 shares in the last quarter. Caxton Associates LP purchased a new stake in Intel in the 2nd quarter valued at about $162,592,000. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its position in shares of Intel by 2,681.1% during the 2nd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 4,431,749 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $137,251,000 after buying an additional 4,272,395 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.53% of the company’s stock.

    Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

    INTC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial reduced their target price on Intel from $33.00 to $25.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Intel from $35.00 to $26.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. New Street Research downgraded shares of Intel from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on shares of Intel from $35.00 to $26.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Northland Securities dropped their target price on shares of Intel from $68.00 to $42.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-four have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.92.

    View Our Latest Report on INTC

    Insiders Place Their Bets

    In other Intel news, CEO Patrick P. Gelsinger purchased 12,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $20.16 per share, with a total value of $252,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 37,975 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $765,576. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

    Intel Trading Up 0.6 %

    Shares of INTC stock opened at $22.44 on Friday. Intel Co. has a 52-week low of $18.51 and a 52-week high of $51.28. The business’s fifty day moving average is $21.34 and its 200 day moving average is $28.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.59. The company has a market capitalization of $95.53 billion, a PE ratio of 23.38 and a beta of 1.03.

    Intel (NASDAQ:INTCGet Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The chip maker reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by ($0.08). Intel had a net margin of 1.77% and a return on equity of 1.78%. The company had revenue of $12.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.05) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Intel Co. will post -0.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

    Intel Dividend Announcement

    The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 7th were given a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 7th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.23%. Intel’s payout ratio is 52.08%.

    Intel Company Profile

    (Free Report)

    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.

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    Want to see what other hedge funds are holding INTC? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTCFree Report).

    Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

    Receive News & Ratings for Intel Daily – Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts’ ratings for Intel and related companies with MarketBeat.com’s FREE daily email newsletter.

    ABMN Staff

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  • Intel’s stock sees worst plunge since 2020: ‘Yet another major reset’

    Intel’s stock sees worst plunge since 2020: ‘Yet another major reset’


    As Intel Corp.’s stock plunged to its biggest one-day drop in about three and a half years, analysts had some harsh words for the chip maker.

    “How many times can you push the reset button?” Bernstein’s Stacy Rasgon asked in a note to clients.

    While he thought many investors were bracing for the company to miss on its first-quarter forecast, the outlook came in “extremely weak and clearly worse than feared.” Intel
    INTC,
    -11.91%

    expects $12.7 billion in revenue at the midpoint, while analysts had been looking for $14.3 billion.

    See more: Intel seen struggling to ‘find its footing’ as guidance miss sends stock tanking

    “After yet another major reset this story probably just shifted to 2026 at the earliest for the bulls, and there is a lot of meat for the bears to sink their teeth into in the meantime,” Rasgon wrote, while sticking with his market-perform rating and $42 target price.

    Baird’s Tristan Gerra highlighted challenges for Intel’s data-center and artificial-intelligence unit, which is “on track for a third consecutive year of revenue declines,” while his own revenue forecast implies a 14-year low.

    Gaudi, the company’s accelerator chip for artificial-intelligence applications, “does not seem enough to lift [data-center] revenue, while gross margin will be impacted by higher depreciation inclusive of an expected U.S. Chip Act credit,” Gerra continued.

    He also expressed some concerns about the company’s broader road ahead.

    “Can top-line growth in future years be sufficient to fund continued node migration?” Gerra said. “Many hurdles remain, notably ramping units from this year’s small base (small baseline for Intel 4 makes it more challenging to yield at the next node), while [the Intel Foundry Service] revenue ramp entirely depends on future node execution including yield and performance.”

    Gerra has a neutral rating and $40 target price on Intel’s stock.

    Shares fell 11.9% in Friday trading, making for their worst single-day percentage decline since July 24, 2020, when they fell 16.2%, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

    Needham’s N. Quinn Bolton, meanwhile, downgraded the stock to hold from buy in the wake of Thursday afternoon’s report, calling the earnings reset “unexpected.”

    “In addition to an overall worsening risk-reward, Intel’s core [data-center] business is challenged by a shift to accelerated computing architectures and direct competition from AMD and ARM,” he wrote. “We expect AI to remain the spending priority in the data center for the next several quarters. To that end, dollars will continue moving away from Intel’s core competency.”

    Read: Missed the boat on AMD’s stock surge? Why this analyst says you’re not too late.

    Rosenblatt’s Hans Mosesmann took a similar view as he argued that Intel’s sales outlook is “contrary to the uber bullish messaging to the Street and is consistent with share losses to AMD, a lack of any perceivable AI growth vector that moves any dial, and points to another, yes another, transitional year.”

    Artificial intelligence “seems like everywhere except at Intel,” he continued, noting that his stance on the stock “has not changed for many years.” Mosesmann continues to rate it at sell.

    Opinion: Intel’s stock plunge shows that Wall Street still hasn’t learned its lesson on AI hype

    Raymond James analyst Srini Pajjuri, however, was more upbeat about Intel’s ability to capitalize on AI. “While Intel won’t likely get much credit for AI in the near term, we are encouraged by the growing pipeline for Gaudi accelerators ($2b+) and expect meaningful revenue contribution” in the second half of 2024, he wrote, while sticking with his outperform call but cutting his target price to $52 from $54.



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  • These 20 stocks soared the most in 2023

    These 20 stocks soared the most in 2023

    (Updated with Friday’s closing prices.)

    The 2023 rally for stocks in the U.S. accelerated as more investors bought the idea that the Federal Reserve succeeded in its effort to bring inflation to heel.

    The S&P 500
    SPX
    ended Friday with a 24.2% gain for 2023, following a 19.4% decline in 2022. (All price changes in this article exclude dividends). Among the 500 stocks, 65% were up for 2023. Below is a list of the year’s 20 best performers in the benchmark index.

    This article focuses on large-cap stocks. MarketWatch Editor in Chief Mark DeCambre took a broader look at all U.S. stocks of companies with market capitalizations of at least $1 billion, to list 10 with gains ranging from 412% to 1,924%.

    The Fed began raising short-term interest rates and pushing long-term rates higher in March 2022 by allowing its bond portfolio to run off. That explains the poor performance for stocks in 2022, as bonds and even bank accounts because more attractive to investors.

    The central bank hasn’t raised the federal-funds rate since moving it to the current target range of 5.25% to 5.50% in July, and its economic projections point to three rate cuts in 2024.

    Investors are anticipating the return to a low-rate environment by scooping up 10-year U.S. Treasury notes
    BX:TMUBMUSD10Y,
    whose yield ended the year at 3.88%, down from 4.84% on Oct. 27 — the day of the S&P 500’s low for the second half of 2023.

    Read: Treasury yields end mostly higher but little changed on year after wild 2023

    Before looking at the list of best-performing stocks of 2023, here’s a summary of how the 11 sectors of the S&P 500 performed, with the full index and three more broad indexes at the bottom:

    Sector or index

    2023 price change

    2022 price change

    Price change since end of 2021

    Forward P/E

    Forward P/E at end of 2022

    Forward P/E at end of 2023

    Information Technology

    56.4%

    -28.9%

    11.5%

    26.7

    20.0

    28.2

    Communication Services

    54.4%

    -40.4%

    -7.6%

    17.4

    14.3

    21.0

    Consumer Discretionary

    41.0%

    -37.6%

    -11.4%

    26.2

    21.7

    34.7

    Industrials

    16.0%

    -7.1%

    8.0%

    20.0

    18.7

    22.0

    Materials

    10.2%

    -14.1%

    -4.9%

    19.5

    15.8

    16.6

    Financials

    9.9%

    -12.4%

    -3.4%

    14.6

    13.0

    16.3

    Real Estate

    8.3%

    -28.4%

    -21.6%

    18.3

    16.9

    24.7

    Healthcare

    0.3%

    -3.6%

    -3.3%

    18.2

    17.7

    17.3

    Consumer Staples

    -2.2%

    -3.2%

    -5.4%

    19.3

    20.6

    21.4

    Energy

    -4.8%

    59.0%

    51.8%

    10.9

    9.8

    11.1

    Utilities

    -10.2%

    -1.4%

    -11.4%

    15.9

    18.7

    20.4

    S&P 500
    SPX
    24.2%

    -19.4%

    0.4%

    19.7

    16.8

    21.6

    Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA
    13.7%

    -8.8%

    3.8%

    17.6

    16.6

    18.9

    Nasdaq Composite
    COMP
    43.4%

    -33.1%

    -3.5%

    26.9

    22.6

    32.0

    Nasdaq-100
    NDX
    53.8%

    -33.0%

    3.5%

    26.3

    20.9

    30.3

    Source: FactSet

    A look at 2023 price action really needs to encompass what took place in 2022 for context. The broad indexes haven’t moved much from their levels at the end of 2022 (again, excluding dividends). We have included current forward price-to-earnings ratios along with those at the end of 2021 and 2022. These valuations have declined a bit, which may provide some comfort for investors wondering how likely it is for stocks to continue to rally in 2024.

    Biggest price increases among the S&P 500

    Here are the 20 stocks in the S&P 500 whose prices rose the most in 2023:

    Company

    Ticker

    2023 price change

    2022 price change

    Price change since end of 2021

    Forward P/E

    Forward P/E at end of 2022

    Forward P/E at end of 2021

    Nvidia Corp.

    NVDA,
    239%

    -50%

    68%

    24.9

    34.4

    58.0

    Meta Platforms Inc. Class A

    META,
    -1.22%
    194%

    -64%

    5%

    20.2

    14.7

    23.5

    Royal Caribbean Group

    RCL,
    -0.37%
    162%

    -36%

    68%

    14.3

    14.9

    232.4

    Builders FirstSource Inc.

    BLDR,
    -1.02%
    157%

    -24%

    95%

    14.2

    10.7

    13.3

    Uber Technologies Inc.

    UBER,
    -2.49%
    149%

    -41%

    47%

    56.9

    N/A

    N/A

    Carnival Corp.

    CCL,
    -0.70%
    130%

    -60%

    -8%

    18.7

    41.3

    N/A

    Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

    AMD,
    -0.91%
    128%

    -55%

    2%

    39.7

    17.7

    43.1

    PulteGroup Inc.

    PHM,
    -0.26%
    127%

    -20%

    81%

    9.1

    6.3

    6.2

    Palo Alto Networks Inc.

    PANW,
    -0.24%
    111%

    -25%

    59%

    50.2

    38.0

    70.1

    Tesla Inc.

    TSLA,
    -1.86%
    102%

    -65%

    -29%

    66.2

    22.3

    120.3

    Broadcom Inc.

    AVGO,
    -0.55%
    100%

    -16%

    68%

    23.2

    13.6

    19.8

    Salesforce Inc.

    CRM,
    -0.92%
    98%

    -48%

    4%

    28.0

    23.8

    53.5

    Fair Isaac Corp.

    FICO,
    -0.46%
    94%

    38%

    168%

    47.1

    29.3

    28.7

    Arista Networks Inc.

    ANET,
    -0.62%
    94%

    -16%

    64%

    32.7

    22.3

    41.4

    Intel Corp.

    INTC,
    -0.28%
    90%

    -49%

    -2%

    26.6

    14.6

    13.9

    Jabil Inc.

    JBL,
    -0.45%
    87%

    -3%

    81%

    13.5

    7.9

    10.3

    Lam Research Corp.

    LRCX,
    -0.81%
    86%

    -42%

    9%

    25.2

    13.5

    20.2

    ServiceNow Inc.

    NOW,
    +0.57%
    82%

    -40%

    9%

    56.0

    42.6

    90.1

    Amazon.com Inc.

    AMZN,
    -0.94%
    81%

    -50%

    -9%

    42.0

    46.7

    64.9

    Monolithic Power Systems Inc.

    MPWR,
    -0.23%
    78%

    -28%

    28%

    49.1

    27.3

    57.9

    Source: FactSet

    Click on the tickers for more about each company.

    Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

    Don’t miss: Nvidia tops list of Wall Street’s 20 favorite stocks for 2024

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  • Intel Rallied 91% This Year. Expect Higher Highs in 2024.

    Intel Rallied 91% This Year. Expect Higher Highs in 2024.

    What a strange year 2023 was for Intel

    Continue reading this article with a Barron’s subscription.

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  • Intel, Tesla, Apple, Iovance, NetEase, Coherus BioSciences, and More Stock Market Movers

    Intel, Tesla, Apple, Iovance, NetEase, Coherus BioSciences, and More Stock Market Movers

    Stock futures traded slightly lower Wednesday after the S&P 500 finished higher Tuesday and just 0.45% below its record close of 4,796.56 hit Jan. 3, 2022. The broad market index has risen 24% this year and has gained 4.5% this month as traders bet the Federal Reserve will begin cutting interest rates as soon as March.

    Continue reading this article with a Barron’s subscription.

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  • Intel’s stock flirts with highest close in 15 months

    Intel’s stock flirts with highest close in 15 months

    Intel Corp. shares
    INTC,
    +2.80%

    were up 2.8% in afternoon trading Friday and flirting with their highest close in more than 15 months, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The stock traded as high as $38.99 earlier in the session and recently changed hands at $38.86. A close above $38.86 and below $39.71 would make for the stock’s highest finish since July 28, 2022. Friday’s rally comes on a day of strength for chip stocks, with the PHLX Semiconductor Index
    SOX,
    +4.04%

    up nearly 4%. Earlier Friday, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
    TSM,
    +6.35%

    posted a 34.8% sequential increase in revenue for the month of October in a positive signal for the sector.

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  • Dow ends nearly 400 points higher as tech rally leads stocks to highest close since September

    Dow ends nearly 400 points higher as tech rally leads stocks to highest close since September

    U.S. stocks ended sharply higher Friday, more than shaking off weakness seen the previous session in the aftermath of a poor Treasury bond auction and fresh signs that interest rates may stay higher for longer.

    Technology stocks drove the bounce, with the Nasdaq Composite leading major indexes to the upside as it and the S&P 500 logged their highest finishes since September.

    What happened

    • The Dow Jones Industrial Average
      DJIA
      rose 391.16 points, or 1.2%, to close at 34,283.10.

    • The S&P 500
      SPX
      ended with a gain of 67.89 points, or 1.6%, at 4,415.24.

    • The Nasdaq Composite
      COMP
      advanced 276.66 points, or 2%, to finish at 13,798.10.

    The rally left the Dow with a weekly gain of 0.7%, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.3% and the Nasdaq booked a rise of 2.4%. The Dow saw its highest close since Sept. 20, while the S&P 500 ended at its highest since Sept. 19 and the Nasdaq at its highest since Sept. 14.

    Market drivers

    Tech was in the driver’s seat. Shares of Microsoft Corp.
    MSFT,
    +2.49%

    jumped 2.5%, with the Dow component scoring its third record close in four sessions. Intel Corp. shares
    INTC,
    +2.80%

    rose 2.8% to lead Dow gainers.

    Meanwhile, the S&P 500 tested important chart resistance at the 4,400 to 4,415 level, which marks the confluence of previous resistance and the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement of the July-October drop, according to Matthew Weller, global head of research at Forex.com, in a note (see chart below).


    Forex.com

    “From a bigger picture perspective, bulls will need to see the index conclusively break above 4415 before declaring that the post-July streak of lower lows and lower highs is over,” Weller wrote.

    The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite ended their longest winning streaks since November 2021 on Thursday, after a poorly-received $24 billion sale of 30-year Treasury bonds.

    A calmer bond market may have helped set the tone for stocks. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond
    BX:TMUBMUSD30Y
    fell 3.2 basis points to 4.733%, after it nearly notched its biggest one-day jump since June 2022. The yield still saw a weekly decline, its third straight.

    It was unclear whether the Treasury auction had been affected by a reported ransomware attack against the U.S. unit of the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China that apparently disrupted the U.S. Treasury market.

    See: How ransomware attack on ICBC rattled the Treasury market and shook up a 30-year bond auction

    Thursday’s setback was also tied to comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who told an International Monetary Fund panel on Thursday that the central bank was wary of “head fakes” from inflation, and the “2% goal was not assured.”

    Much of Powell’s language was nearly identical to remarks he made on Nov. 1, when investors rallied stocks and bonds after the Fed chair didn’t explicitly commit to a further interest rate hike. But the subsequent rally for stocks after the Nov. 1 Fed meeting, with the S&P 500 jumping more than 6% over eight days, and a 50 basis point drop in the 10-year Treasury yield were “overdone and not governed by facts,” said Tom Essaye, founder of Sevens Report Research, in a note.

    “Meanwhile, if we think about what the Fed said last week, namely that the rise in the 10-year yield was doing the Fed’s work for it and as a result they may not have to hike rates, then the short/sharp decline in the 10-year yield we’ve seen could essentially remove the reason for the Fed not having to hike rates — and that could put a rate hike back on the table!” he wrote. “That’s essentially what Powell reminded us of yesterday and that, along with the poor Treasury auction, pushed yields higher,” setting up pressure on stocks.

    U.S. consumer sentiment fell in November for the fourth month in a row due to worries about higher interest rates as well as war in the Middle East. The preliminary reading of the sentiment survey declined to 60.4 from 63.8 in October, the University of Michigan said Friday. It’s the weakest reading since May.

    Investors were also tuning into more comments by Fed officials Friday, including San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly, who said she didn’t know if rates were high enough to bring inflation back down to the central bank’s 2% target.

    Companies in focus

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  • Intel cheers foundry wins, AI traction, and its stock is roaring after earnings

    Intel cheers foundry wins, AI traction, and its stock is roaring after earnings

    Intel Corp. shares were popping nearly 8% in Thursday’s extended session after the chip maker delivered a rosy forecast, while talking up new customers for its foundry business and traction related to artificial intelligence.

    For the fourth quarter, Intel
    INTC,
    -0.94%

    anticipates $14.6 billion to $15.6 billion in revenue, whereas analysts were looking for $14.4 billion. The company is also modeling 44 cents in adjusted earnings per share, while the FactSet consensus was for 33 cents.

    “While the industry has seen some wallet share shifts between CPU and accelerators over the last several quarters, as well as some inventory burn in the server market, we see signs of normalization as we enter Q4,” Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger said on the earnings call.

    Gelsinger expressed confidence about Intel’s positioning — and the future of central processing units — as AI becomes more dominant in the technology world.

    “Training of these large models is interesting, but the deployment of those models, the inferencing use of those models is what we believe is truly spectacular for the future,” he said. “And…some of that will run on the accelerators, but a huge amount of that is going to run, right, on Xeons.”

    He also shared that Intel now has three customers for its 18A foundry process technology that have made commitments. The company previously disclosed one customer made prepayments, but Gelsinger added Thursday that Intel has two other customers.

    “The other thing that we saw this quarter, which was a little bit unexpected, was this huge surge in interest for AI customers and Intel’s advanced packaging technology,” he said.

    Intel is in the midst of a big push to build a foundry business through which it would manufacture chips for other companies, though not all on Wall Street are sold yet on the move.

    The company also delivered an upbeat third-quarter report, easily clearing Wall Street’s bar on profit and topping expectations on revenue as well.

    The company reported net income of $297 million, or 7 cents a share, compared with $1.0 billion, or 25 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. On an adjusted basis, Intel earned 41 cents a share, down from 59 cents a share a year prior, while analysts were looking for 22 cents a share.

    Revenue dropped to $14.2 billion from $15.3 billion, while the FactSet consensus called for $13.6 billion.

    The company saw revenue from its personal-computer segment, known as client-computing, drop 3% to $7.9 billion, whereas analysts were looking for $7.3 billion. Data-center and AI revenue fell 10% to $3.8 billion, narrowly missing the FactSet consensus, which was $3.9 billion.

    Intel recorded a 45.8% adjusted gross margin, compared with 39.8% in the second quarter. The company’s forecast had been for about 43%.

    Intel shares have climbed 24% so far this year, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA
    has lost about 1%.

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  • AI stole the show this year, but earnings will drag Wall Street back to reality

    AI stole the show this year, but earnings will drag Wall Street back to reality

    Nearly a year ago, OpenAI released ChatGPT 3 into the world, and investors got visions of dollar signs in their heads as they imagined the ways that artificial intelligence could make big money for businesses.

    Wall Street’s now coming to terms with the fact that those sorts of paydays are going to take time. As investors have already seen from the past two quarters of earnings, AI has only really delivered financial benefits for a select few hardware companies so far — while spurring new costs for many others.

    “The AI boom has already bifurcated into the contenders and pretenders,” said Daniel Newman, chief executive and principal analyst of Futurum Research. And while Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Intel Corp. and Arm Holdings PLC
    ARM,
    +0.38%

    have stirred up interest, Nvidia Corp.
    NVDA,
    -4.68%

    has established itself as far and away the greatest “contender,” with AI driving strong demand for its chips tuned for AI training.

    Nvidia last quarter reported record earnings, including a 141% jump in revenue for its graphics chips used in AI infrastructure building up data centers. Nvidia, which reports near the end of earnings season on Nov. 21, posted record revenue of $13.5 billion last quarter and is expected to easily top that with $16 billion in the most recent quarter, a surge of 170% versus a year ago. Those estimates include $12.3 billion of revenue coming from data-center sales.

    Other chip companies could post gains from AI as well, but to far lesser extents. Candidates include Broadcom Corp.
    AVGO,
    -2.01%

    and system maker Super Micro Computer Inc.
    SMCI,
    +2.35%
    ,
    as well as Marvell Technology Inc.
    MRVL,
    -0.91%
    ,
    which last quarter told analysts that it expects to end the year at a revenue run rate of about $800 million this year from cloud/data-center chips related to AI.

    “This is well above what we had outlined last quarter. Put this in perspective: This would put us at the run rate we had previously communicated for all of next year,” Marvel Chief Executive Matthew Murphy told analysts.

    Super Micro is also riding the AI wave with its customized data-center servers that are designed to consume less power. But revenue in the September quarter is forecast to rise just 15% from a year ago and drop on a sequential basis, as supply constraints from Nvidia likely hampered Super Micro’s ability to meet all its demand.

    Much as Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
    AMD,
    -1.24%

    and Intel Corp.
    INTC,
    -1.37%

    want to be in the AI conversations with the graphics chips they hope will be used for AI data-center applications, they won’t see much of an impact yet from AI revenue. Plus, those companies are experiencing a slowdown in PC sales that may overshadow any small benefit from AI chips.

    The AI boom in chips is clearly not providing enough of a boost to lift finances for the overall semiconductor sector, which is forecast to see earnings fall 3.3% in the third quarter and post a revenue decline of 0.6%, according to FactSet. The industry is being dragged down in part by Micron Technology Inc.
    MU,
    -0.12%
    ,
    which reported a 40% drop in revenue and a whopping fiscal fourth-quarter loss in late September for the quarter ended Aug. 31, which is included in FactSet’s third-quarter data. Even so, the company called a bottom to the memory-chip downturn.

    Read also: Micron’s AI focused chip won’t help financial results anytime soon.

    “Most of the consumer-based tech is still struggling, [including] PCs, laptops and to a certain extent smartphones,” said Daniel Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Co. Wall Street has tempered expectations related to the impact of Apple Inc.’s
    AAPL,
    -0.88%

    iPhone 15 launch on the quarter, as estimates call for an overall 1% drop in September-quarter revenue. Last quarter, Apple executives forecast that both Mac and iPad sales would be down by double-digits and that revenue performance would be similar to its June quarter, when revenue fell 1.3%

    In addition, when asked about AI, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company views AI and machine learning “as core fundamental technologies that are integral to virtually every product that we build.” Those comments, though, can also apply to the bulk of tech companies, where AI is built into software as another layer to improve a product. Internet companies such as Meta Platforms Inc.
    META,
    +0.89%

    and Alphabet Inc.
    GOOG,
    +0.36%

    GOOGL,
    +0.45%

    incorporate AI into their software and algorithms but don’t treat it as a specific, revenue-generating product.

    Other software companies are building AI into their products as separate features or add-ons, but they are still in the early stages of seeing whether or not customers will pay more for them. Take Microsoft Corp.,
    MSFT,
    -0.17%

    which has showed off Copilot, an extra AI feature for customers of Microsoft 365.

    “[Microsoft] can distinguish itself by providing more details around its AI revenue
    ramp since we don’t expect much information from Google, who really doesn’t seem
    to have the monetization plan for Bard and AI-assisted search (SGE) ready to
    articulate yet,” Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes said in a note to clients this week. He also noted that the cost of offering AI products to consumers is steep, and requires lots of investment.

    “There are sophisticated issues to contend with for Microsoft, including balancing the potential for higher revenue from Copilots with the high costs per query and much-needed investment,” Reitzes said. “The balance of AI adoption vs. cost was implied when Microsoft guided to flat operating margins year over year for fiscal 2024.”

    Earlier this year, the Information reported that OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT and recipient of a hefty investment from Microsoft, has costs of up to $700,000 a day, because the massive amounts of computing power needed to run queries. In February, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Plus, for $20 a month, a service that will give subscribers access to its AI during peak times and faster response times.

    Another example is Adobe Inc.
    ADBE,
    +1.70%
    ,
    which has a few AI offerings, including a subscription service called Generative Credits, tokens that let customers turn text-based prompts into images. Another is Firefly, a generative AI service for images, and an AI option in Photoshop, currently called Photoshop Beta AI, to help users fill in images and other collaborative tools. Adobe did not provide any forecasts on potential revenue generation during its analyst day earlier this month.

    Toni Sacconaghi, a Bernstein Research analyst, said AI could drive a massive increase in enterprise productivity, and companies could dramatically increase IT spending on servers in order to invest in productivity-enhancing AI. “However, we note that enterprise adoption appears to be in early stages,” he said in a recent note to clients, adding that it was feasible that spending on AI infrastructure could take money away from other IT projects in process. “We do worry that projected AI infrastructure build out may be occurring too quickly, necessitating a digestion period, which could result in a commensurate stock pullback in AI-related names.”

    Overall, the information-technology sector itself is expected to see anemic revenue growth this quarter. The consensus on FactSet forecasts a meager 1.35% revenue uptick in the third quarter, with earnings growth of 4.65%. FactSet’s estimates for IT companies exclude internet companies like Meta and Alphabet, which are under the category of communications/interactive media services. That sector is expected to see sales growth of 12%, and earnings growth of 51%, thanks to a 116% boost in Meta’s net income, after it hit a low point in the year-ago quarter.

    Amazon.com Inc.
    AMZN,
    -0.81%
    ,
    in the category of consumer discretionary/broadline retail, is forecast to see earnings growth of 109%, and revenue growth of 11%. Amazon’s cloud services business, AWS, is expected to also see a potential uplift from customers spending money on AI projects, according to a TD Cowen & Co. survey, in which 41% of respondents said they were “highly considering” allocating a budget for generative AI.

    “This trend could bode well for Amazon’s AWS,” TD Cowen analyst John Blackledge said in a recent report, adding that he expects AWS revenue growth to reaccelerate in the second half of this year and in 2024, boosted by the move of additional workloads to the cloud, possibly including generative AI.

    As companies build up their infrastructure, or their spending on cloud computing to add or improve AI capabilities, they are seeing higher costs, which is affecting margins — especially if revenue has slowed down, as it has in some sectors. Across both the broader S&P 500
    SPX,
    and the IT sector, earnings are lower than a year ago.

    As Newman of Futurum pointed out, “AI stole the budget this year.” And that is a mixed bag for tech.

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  • Intel’s Big Chip-Making Push in Germany Hits Bottleneck

    Intel’s Big Chip-Making Push in Germany Hits Bottleneck

    Intel’s Big Chip-Making Push in Germany Hits Bottleneck

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  • Instacart, Ford, Pinterest, Coty, Dollar General, Intel, and More Stock Market Movers

    Instacart, Ford, Pinterest, Coty, Dollar General, Intel, and More Stock Market Movers


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  • Intel Shares Slip as CFO Warns of Excess Data Center Chip Inventories

    Intel Shares Slip as CFO Warns of Excess Data Center Chip Inventories

    Intel Stock Slips as CFO Warns of Excess Data Center Chip Inventories

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  • Intel stock rallies after earnings show AI data-center beat, strong PC sales

    Intel stock rallies after earnings show AI data-center beat, strong PC sales

    Intel Corp. shares surged in the extended session Thursday after the chip maker posted a surprise profit, but while data-center sales came in better than expected, a larger beat in PC product sales drove margin improvement.

    Intel
    INTC,
    +0.55%

    shares surged around 8% after hours, following a 0.6% rise to close the regular session at $34.55.

    The company reported second-quarter net income of $1.48 billion, or 35 cents a share, versus a loss of $454 million, or 11 cents a share, in the year-ago period. After adjusting for restructuring charges and other items, Intel reported 13 cents a share, versus net income of 28 cents a share a year ago.

    Revenue fell to $12.95 billion from $15.32 billion in the year-ago period, and adjusted gross margins came in at 39.8%, the company said.

    Intel had forecast an adjusted second-quarter loss of 4 cents a share on revenue of about $11.5 billion to $12.5 billion for the current period, and adjusted gross margins of about 33.2% for the quarter.

    Analysts surveyed by FactSet, on average, expected a loss of 4 cents a share on revenue of $12.12 billion.

    The margin beat was “largely a function of revenue,” Intel Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner told analysts on a conference call, and that revenue beat was much more pronounced in Intel client, or PC, business than it was data center.

    “We had obviously beat revenue significantly, and we’ve got a good follow-through in the fixed-cost nature of our business, and so that really was what helped us outperform significantly on the gross-margin side in the second quarter,” Zinsner told analysts.

    Intel posted PC-group sales of $6.8 billion and data-center sales of $4 billion, while analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast $6.08 billion and $3.8 billion, respectively.

    Before the conference call, Edward Jones analyst Logan Purk told MarketWatch in an interview following the report that most of the improvement in Intel’s gross margin came from the unexpected amount of growth in the PC business.

    “The magnitude of client computing growth, and how the PC market is recovering faster than anticipated,” came as a surprise, Purk told MarketWatch. The analyst, who has a hold rating on Intel, said he expects sequential single-digit improvement in data center going forward.

    Still, on the call, Intel Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger hammered home the point that Intel was wholeheartedly going after the AI market, which is expected to be dominated by Nvidia Corp.
    NVDA,
    +0.99%
    ,
    and to a lesser extent, by Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
    AMD,
    +0.92%
    ,
    which reports earnings on Tuesday.

    “We see AI being infused in everything and there’s going to be AI chips for the edge, AI chips for the communications infrastructure, AI chips for sensing devices, for automotive devices, and we see opportunities for us both as a product provider and as a foundry and technology provider across that spectrum,” Gelsinger said.

    Meanwhile, network and edge sales came in at $1.4 billion, while analysts called for $1.48 billion, and foundry services revenue rose to $232 million for the quarter, while Wall Street looked for $149.2 million.

    “In the third quarter, we do obviously at the midpoint see revenue growth sequentially and so that will be helpful in terms of gross margin,” Zinsner told analysts on the call. “We expect, again, pretty good follow-through as we get that incremental revenue.”

    Intel forecast third-quarter earnings of about 20 cents a share on revenue of about $12.9 billion to $13.9 billion and adjusted gross margins of about 43% for the current quarter. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast third-quarter adjusted earnings of 16 cents a share on revenue of $13.22 billion.

    Read: Intel may have bottomed, but earnings will show if chip maker can hope to catch up to Nvidia and AMD in AI

    Year to date, Intel shares have gained nearly 31%, while the PHLX Semiconductor Index 
    SOX,
    +1.86%

    has surged 49%, the S&P 500
    SPX,
    -0.64%

    has grown 18%, the Nasdaq Composite
    COMP,
    -0.55%

    has gained 34% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA,
    -0.67%

    is up more than 6%.

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  • U.S. stocks open higher ahead of Big Tech earnings, central-bank decisions

    U.S. stocks open higher ahead of Big Tech earnings, central-bank decisions

    U.S. stock indexes opened higher on Monday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average looking to extend its 10-session winning streak. Investors are awaiting a batch of earnings reports from megacap growth and technology companies while eying on monetary-policy decisions from the world’s major central banks amid continued signs that inflation is easing. The Dow industrials
    DJIA,
    +0.52%

    rose 88 points, or 0.3%, to 35,319. The S&P 500
    SPX,
    +0.40%

    gained 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite
    COMP,
    +0.19%

    advanced 0.5%. Corporate results due on Monday include Domino’s Pizza
    DPZ,
    +0.12%
    ,
    Whirlpool
    WHR,
    +0.69%
    ,
    Logitech
    LOGI,
    -0.80%

    and NXP Semiconductors
    NXPI,
    -1.13%
    .
    Alphabet
    GOOGL,
    +1.26%

    and Microsoft
    MSFT,
    +0.39%

    will report their numbers on Tuesday; Meta
    META,
    -0.90%

    on Wednesday; and Intel
    INTC,
    -1.15%

    on Thursday. The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points after its policy meeting this week. Policymakers will release a statement announcing their decision Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern, while Fed Chair Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m..

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  • The Next Challengers Joining Nvidia in the AI Chip Revolution

    The Next Challengers Joining Nvidia in the AI Chip Revolution

    What to Read Next

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  • Nvidia Stock Is Down. Blame Tesla.

    Nvidia Stock Is Down. Blame Tesla.


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    Shares of newly minted $1 trillion company


    Nvidia


    were taking it on the chin Monday, and investors searching for a reason should look to


    Tesla


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  • Option demand explodes in June as investors use bullish bets to chase stock-market rally

    Option demand explodes in June as investors use bullish bets to chase stock-market rally

    Trading in U.S. stock option contracts has surged in 2023 as retail and institutional traders have harnessed bullish call options to chase a runaway rally in U.S. stocks, market analysts told MarketWatch.

    As of Friday, 46 million option contracts linked to U.S. equity indexes, individual stocks and exchange-traded funds have traded hands every trading session on average this month, according to an analysis by Callie Cox, a U.S. equity strategist at eToro.

    This means that, barring a sudden drop-off in trading activity, June is on track to be the busiest month for option traders ever, Cox said. That is particularly notable given that the summer months are typically more placid on Wall Street.

    “It’s pretty incredible for a summer month. It shows how engaged investors are after such a strong rally,” said Callie Cox, a U.S. equity strategist at eToro, during an interview with MarketWatch.


    ETORO

    Much of the demand has centered on call options: trading volume in these contracts has averaged 26 million a day so far, leaving June on track for the heaviest month of call buying since November 2021, Cox said.

    Several overlapping trends have contributed to the surge in option demand, market analysts said.

    Investors wary about a rally that recently carried the S&P 500 index to its highest level in 14 months have opted to buy short-dated calls. Often these are contracts tied to the S&P 500 or the index-tracking SPDR S&P 500 exchange-traded fund with less than 24 hours left until expiration, a class of options referred to as “0DTEs” for “zero days to expiration.”

    Some traders see these cheap short-term bets as a particularly affordable, if risky, strategy for reaping gains as the market marches higher, according to market analysts and portfolio managers who spoke with MarketWatch.

    And when stocks pull back, investors often change their strategy and instead of buying calls, opt to take advantage by buying or selling put options.

    While a call represents a bet that a given index, stock or currency will rise, a put represents the opposite.

    In addition to betting on calls tied to popular equity indexes and exchange-traded funds like the S&P 500 or the Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 ETF
    QQQ,
    -0.99%
    ,
    investors are also scooping up bullish options tied to Nvidia Corp. and other market leaders, hoping to maximize any returns from the artificial intelligence boom.

    The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that trading in call options tied to shares of Nvidia Corp.
    NVDA,
    -1.90%

    and two other chip stocks, Advanced Micro Devices
    AMD,
    -0.62%

    and Intel Corp.,
    INTC,
    +0.89%

    has surged fivefold since the beginning of the year, citing data from Cboe Global Markets, owner of the world’s largest options exchange.

    But demand for calls has expanded beyond megacap technology names into areas of the market that have trailed since the start of the year, including small-cap stocks and others, which have rallied in June.

    The Russell 2000
    RUT,
    -1.44%
    ,
    an index that tracks small-cap stocks traded in the U.S., is up nearly 5% year-to-date. As of the end of May, it was marginally negative for the year, options experts said.

    “With mega cap technology leading the indexes higher, investors started to play catch-up by trying to buy the second-tier and heavily shorted companies,” said Alon Rosin, head of equity derivatives at Oppenheimer, in emailed commentary shared with MarketWatch.

    This means that investors’ rush to try to keep up with the market hasn’t only benefited hot AI-stocks.

    Amy Wu Silverman, head of derivatives strategy at RBC Capital Markets, made a similar observation in a recent note to clients where she pointed out that call buying has surged for both companies expected to benefit from the AI boom, as well as stocks in an RBC basket of companies that are threatened by it — stocks like Robert Half International
    RHI,
    -0.54%
    ,
    Chegg Inc.
    CHGG,
    -4.00%

    and Yext Inc.
    YEXT,
    -2.74%
    ,
    she said.

    Silverman said heavy call buying in this group is indicative of the market’s “extreme call exuberance.”

    Call buying has helped send popular indicators of positioning like the put-call ratio and skew, which measures the cost of downside protection via puts vs. demand for upside exposure via calls, to their lowest levels of the year earlier this month.

    “People are reaching for upside via calls, and you’re seeing skew falling due to the fact that everybody has been buying calls,” said Mark Callahan, head of trading and a portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors, during a phone interview with MarketWatch.

    Callahan manages several active exchange-traded funds that require heavy option trading.

    U.S. stocks have marched higher this year, with the S&P 500 rising for five straight weeks through June 16, its longest streak of weekly gains since November 2021. The Nasdaq Composite
    COMP,
    -1.01%

    has seen even stronger performance, and its eight-week win streak has been heralded as the tech-heavy index’s longest rally since 2019, according to FactSet data.

    The S&P 500 has risen more than 13% so far this year, while the Nasdaq has gained more than 30%. Both have erased much of their losses from 2022, which was the worst year for stocks since 2008. Last week, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit their highest levels since April 2022.

    However, there are some signs that the torrid rally might be in the midst of a pullback as the S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA,
    -0.65%

    are all on track to finish the week lower on Friday.

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  • Tesla, Nvidia, Spirit Aerosystems, KB Home, Accenture, and More Market Movers

    Tesla, Nvidia, Spirit Aerosystems, KB Home, Accenture, and More Market Movers

    Stock futures were falling following three straight days of losses for Wall Street. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell again will be delivering testimony before Congress. His comments on Wednesday that the central bank likely would be raising rates further this year pushed markets lower.

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  • Intel Stock Drops Despite Plan for Cost Savings. This Is Why.

    Intel Stock Drops Despite Plan for Cost Savings. This Is Why.

    Chip maker


    Intel


    offered positive news on its foundry business Wednesday as it continues to build out new facilities to expand the custom chip-making service. Investors sold the stock anyway.

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  • Alibaba, Dice, Arcellx, Avis, PayPal, and More Stock Market Movers

    Alibaba, Dice, Arcellx, Avis, PayPal, and More Stock Market Movers


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