NEW YORK, June 26, 2026, 07:02 (EDT)
- Intel dropped over 3% in premarket trading with chip stocks down ahead of the Nasdaq open.
- The 0.93% move Thursday came as the stock traded in an 11.5% range, with volume at 123.12 million shares.
- FactSet shows Intel’s average target price still trails the stock, though Goldman Sachs started coverage recently with a $150 target.
Intel Corporation NASDAQ:INTC dropped over 3% before the bell Friday as chip stocks slipped. A Micron Technology NASDAQ:MU rally had faded. Nasdaq futures were off 1.16% at 5:29 a.m. ET. Advanced Micro Devices NASDAQ:AMD slid over 3% and Nvidia Corporation NASDAQ:NVDA was down 1.4%.
Intel swung from $125.41 to $140.72 on Thursday, a $15.31 range, or 11.5% of its close. The stock finished at $132.87, up 0.93%. Trading volume was 123.12 million shares.
That’s an issue, since the stock trades above where Wall Street sees it going. Intel closed Thursday about 29% higher than FactSet’s average 12-month target of $102.70. It’s also 33% above the median target of $100. The consensus is Hold. There are 14 Buy calls, 4 Overweight, 32 Hold, 1 Underweight and 3 Sell, according to .
Goldman Sachs analyst James Schneider launched coverage on Intel at Neutral with a $150 price target for 12 months, citing some upside from server CPU demand, foundry and packaging. But the bank called Intel’s risk/reward “relatively balanced at current levels.” Goldman said it sees better revenue visibility in Nvidia, Broadcom Inc. NASDAQ:AVGO and AMD. Investing.com
Intel’s first quarter results back up the bull case. The company posted a 7% gain in revenue to $13.6 billion. Data Center and AI revenue was up 22% at $5.1 billion, and Intel Foundry jumped 16% to $5.4 billion. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said demand for Intel’s CPUs and advanced packaging is picking up as AI moves to inference and agentic tasks.
Intel posted a GAAP loss of $3.7 billion, or 73 cents per share for the quarter, according to the filing. The company also said it might pause 14A and other upcoming process work if it doesn’t lock in enough committed demand.
Apple Inc. NASDAQ:AAPL is the latest name in the foundry rumor mill, but investors shouldn’t look for a quick earnings lift. Reuters said this week there’s still no official word on any Apple-Intel chip tie-up. Getting advanced Intel chips into production could take two to three years, according to Malcolm Penn, CEO of Future Horizons. “The absolute best possible case would be 2-3 years before the first chips flowed off the line,” Penn told Reuters. Reuters
Bob O’Donnell, analyst at TECHnalysis Research, said Apple is likely targeting Intel’s 14A process, which he expects won’t show up until 2028 or 2029. Paul Meeks, who leads tech research at Freedom Capital Markets, was more direct about the valuation risk: “Investors are pricing in perfect execution by Intel.” Reuters
Semi stocks don’t look as strong as they did after Thursday’s run. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index jumped over 90% since late March, but this week it pulled back. Traders are asking if the AI trade already got ahead of itself. “The live question is, are higher interest rates going to threaten the more cyclical and volatile component of market leadership at play?” said Julia Hermann, global market strategist at New York Life Investment Management. Reuters
Micron fell 4.8% in premarket trading Friday, pulling back after its more than 15% jump a day earlier. Apple dropped 6% on Thursday as the company hiked some product prices, citing higher memory and storage chip costs, stirring fresh worries about margins and AI-fueled tech spending.
Intel’s Q2 results are the next test. WSJ lists July 23 as the earnings date, with the second-quarter EPS estimate at 21 cents—that’s flat from a month back but higher than 8 cents from three months earlier. Intel is guiding for Q2 revenue between $13.8 billion and $14.8 billion and for GAAP EPS of 8 cents.
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