Will Q1 Make or Break Intel?

April 26, 2018 by Chris Lange

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) is scheduled to report its first-quarter financial results on Thursday after the close. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters are $0.72 in earnings per share on $15.05 billion in revenue. In the same period of last year, the semiconductor giant said it had earnings of $0.66 per share on $14.8 billion in revenue.

Earlier this month it was announced the Intel had killed its wearables business. According to CNBC:

Intel on Wednesday (4/18) confirmed it has chosen to close its New Devices Group, which has worked on augmented reality glasses and other consumer products.

With the move to leave the wearables market, Intel will remain focused on delivering chips for PCs, servers and other hardware, while also looking at emerging technologies.

Back in March, Intel was rumored to be interested in jumping in to buy Broadcom. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich was on CNBC’s Mad Money and he all but dismissed the rumors without formally and indefinitely denying them. His view is that Altera and Mobileye were already the two largest acquisitions, and the company is “heads down on making those successful and right” as Intel’s growth engines for the future. Krzanich also said that 5G is important but that that the company already has the end-to-end products from data centers to modems.

Excluding Thursday’s move, Intel had outperformed the broad markets, with its stock up nearly 40% in the past 52 weeks. In just 2018 alone, the stock was up 11%.

Ahead of the earnings report, a few analysts weighed in on the stock:

  • Credit Suisse has an Outperform rating and a $60 price target.
  • RBC has a Sector Perform rating with a $54 price target.
  • Sanford Bernstein has a Sell rating and a $38 price target.
  • Citigroup has a Buy rating with a $60 price target.
  • Barclays has an Overweight rating with a $60 target.
  • Merrill Lynch has a Buy rating with a $65 price target.

Shares of Intel were last seen up almost 3% at $52.87, with a consensus analyst price target of $54.69 and a 52-week range of $33.23 to $54.36.

Sponsored: Find a Qualified Financial Advisor

Finding a qualified financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to 3 fiduciary financial advisors in your area in 5 minutes. Each advisor has been vetted by SmartAsset and is held to a fiduciary standard to act in your best interests. If you’re ready to be matched with local advisors that can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.