Wall Street Just Supersized Its Price Target on Intel. Is the Stock Still Too Cheap?

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC | INTC Price Prediction) stock is trading at $121 in Wednesday morning action, up 3% after Bernstein boosted its price target on the chipmaker. The share-price bump caps a remarkable run that has reshaped how Wall Street talks about the once-beleaguered semiconductor giant.

The hike came from Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon, who raised the firm’s price target on Intel stock to $100, up from $65. Yet, the headline number masks a wrinkle that’s hard to ignore: Bernstein kept its Market Perform rating, which is a neutral call, not a Buy.

That matters because Intel stock has already detonated higher in 2026. INTC shares are up 225% year-to-date, leaving the new target below where the stock is actually changing hands and raising the question of whether Intel stock is still too cheap.

A Supersized Target That Sits Below the Share Price

The central tension is straightforward: Bernstein’s freshly raised $100 target remains beneath Intel stock’s roughly $119.82 price tag. In Bernstein’s own framework, that’s consistent with a neutral stance.

The bull case Bernstein cites is real. Stronger server demand has become the backbone of Intel’s recovery story, and recent results back that up. Intel’s Data Center and AI segment grew 22% year over year (YoY) to $5.052 billion in Q1 2026, while Intel Foundry revenue rose 16% to $5.421 billion.

CEO Lip-Bu Tan has framed the opportunity bluntly. “The next wave of AI will bring intelligence closer to the end user, moving from foundational models to inference to agentic. This shift is significantly increasing the need for Intel’s CPUs and wafer and advanced packaging offerings,” he stated. That narrative has been the fuel behind the multi-quarter rerating in Intel shares.

Are Price-Target Hikes Just Chasing the Rally?

Here’s the skeptical lens. Analysts began lifting Intel targets only after the stock had ripped higher, not before. A $35 target raise is eye-catching, but if the destination still trails the current quote, it reads less like a forecast and more like a catch-up exercise.

The broader analyst community looks similarly cautious on Intel. The consensus analyst target price sits at $93.12, with 31 Hold ratings versus 10 Buy and 2 Strong Buy calls. The aggregate view implies meaningful downside from current levels.

The valuation tells the same story. Intel stock trades at a price-to-sales ratio of 11.95 and a forward P/E ratio of 156x, with trailing EPS of -$0.61. Those numbers reflect a stock that has priced in a lot of turnaround success already.

The Bull Case Hasn’t Disappeared

To be fair to the optimists, Intel’s operating momentum is genuine. The company’s Q1 2026 report marked the sixth consecutive quarter of revenue above expectations, and non-GAAP gross margin expanded 180 basis points YoY to 41%. Cash on the balance sheet has surged.

Strategic wins reinforce the case. Intel Xeon 6 was selected as the host CPU for NVIDIA‘s (NASDAQ:NVDA) DGX Rubin NVL8 systems, and a multi-year partnership with Alphabet‘s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google for Xeon processors and custom ASIC IPU co-development was announced. NVIDIA’s $5 billion equity investment has also been a powerful validation signal for Intel shareholders.

What to Watch From Here

Investors can watch for whether Intel stock holds above the $100 mark that Bernstein now views as fair value. A break back below it could reframe the entire “chasing the rally” debate.

The next anticipated major catalyst is Intel’s July earnings report, with Q2 2026 guidance calling for revenue of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion and non-GAAP EPS of $0.20. That print will either justify the rerating or expose it.

For now, the “too cheap” question has a defensible answer. By Bernstein’s own math, Intel stock screens as fully valued. It looks like a stock the analysts are still racing to catch.