Why Intel Stock Popped Today

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) stock enjoyed a modest lift on Tuesday, rising 2% through 11:05 a.m. ET amid conflicting moves on Wall Street.

As The Fly reports this morning, investment bank Citigroup trimmed its Intel price target from $22 to $21 per share, at the same time as HSBC upgraded the stock from reduce to hold.

Intel stock sits just below $22 a share, so Citi's new price target implies the stock is going to fall in value over the next 12 months. Citi forecasts "sluggish demand" for PC, automotive, and industrial chips this year, offset by strength in the data center, artificial intelligence, and communications markets. All things considered, Citi is maintaining a neutral view on Intel stock, indicating it thinks investors should hold on.

HSBC's view is similar -- but worse. Despite upgrading Intel stock, HSBC has only a $20 price target on Intel, and the best it can say about the stock is that it looks fairly priced after falling 40% since last July.

Although HSBC hopes the "worst seems to be over" for Intel, and management turmoil and demand risks are priced into the stock, the bank simply doesn't see enough hope that Intel will revive to recommend buying the stock.

Nor do I.

Intel stock has reported negative operating earnings for the past three quarters in a row, and net losses for the past four quarters approach $16 billion after the company took billions in "one-time" charges to earnings last quarter. Furthermore, although operating cash flow is positive, heavy capital spending caused Intel to rack up $15 billion in negative free cash flow over the past year.

Granted, Intel may have taken a sort of kitchen sink approach to earnings last quarter, piling as much bad news as possible into one quarter, so that future quarters will look better by comparison. Granted, too, analysts generally expect this will help turn Intel profitable by 2026. All things considered, though, Intel still looks like kind of a mess.

I'd stay away.

Before you buy stock in Intel, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Intel wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $843,960!*

Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*.

Story Continues