New York, June 15, 2026, 04:54 EDT
- Intel was last at $124.57, about 6.5% higher. The company’s market cap stood near $633 billion.
- Bank of America upgraded Intel to Buy and raised its price target to $135 after seeing better sentiment on CPU and foundry. The analyst called it a rare double upgrade. Shares climbed after the call.
- Intel’s Q2 earnings drop July 23, with the next key catalyst on the calendar. Investors will watch for updates on AI server demand and how the foundry business is playing into results.
Intel shares climbed at the start of the week, building on recent gains fueled by AI hopes and some shifts in market sentiment about the company’s comeback. Intel was last at $124.57, adding $7.58 or around 6.5%. U.S. stock-index futures were also higher Monday. Traders pointed to a U.S.-Iran agreement as pushing up risk appetite, with Nasdaq 100 futures rising 2.1% before the bell.
Intel got bumped up two steps by Bank of America last week, going from Underperform all the way to Buy. The price target got raised to $135 from $96 as well. Price targets are where analysts think the stock could trade in the next year. Benzinga cited analyst Vivek Arya, who said he sees “higher confidence in INTC’s opportunity to help address industry constraints in leading edge wafers/packaging, plus supply into a much larger agentic CPU TAM.” TAM stands for total addressable market—the potential for sales if the demand is there. Benzinga
Intel stock is moving around more than just past worries about its PC and server chip business. Traders are watching for signs of a CPU rebound and for updates on Intel Foundry’s outlook as it tries to win outside contracts. Last week, Reuters said Alphabet’s Google has ordered over three million AI chips (TPUs) for 2028, pointing to a report from The Information. The same report had Nvidia taking a look at Intel’s tech but not making an order. Intel wouldn’t comment. Reuters said it couldn’t confirm the story.
Intel bulls point to signs that AI data center demand is starting to shift beyond GPUs. First-quarter revenue came in at $13.6 billion, up 7% from a year ago. Data Center and AI sales rose 22% to $5.1 billion. The Foundry business brought in $5.4 billion, a 16% increase. Intel expects second-quarter revenue of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion, with non-GAAP EPS at $0.20. Non-GAAP EPS strips out some accounting costs.
Valuation and execution still bother the bears. Intel’s trailing EPS is negative, which means there’s no standard P/E ratio to help the stock here. Bank of America set a new $135 price target—that’s just over the previous close. Benzinga says the analyst average is $75.58, with 36 analysts at a Neutral rating. Intel Foundry logged a $2.44 billion operating loss in Q1. Foundry gains aren’t profitable yet.
Intel is set to release second-quarter earnings on July 23. Wall Street expects EPS of $0.19 and revenue of $14.40 billion, in line with company guidance, per Benzinga. Investors will be focused on margins, looking for progress in AI-server chips, and want to see foundry losses shrink. The street also wants evidence that major tech firms interested in Intel’s products are actually placing orders.
Intel shares look more risky than a clear buy at current levels. AI infrastructure, U.S. chip factories, hopes for new foundry wins and server improvement all get cited by bulls. But the stock already sits above the average analyst target, pricing in much of that optimism. Anyone banking on a multi-year turnaround might see reasons to stick around, but the last quarter showed red ink on trailing earnings, ongoing foundry losses, and high execution risk at the 18A and 14A nodes.
