Popular chip giant Intel Corporation (INTC) is rising after favorable analyst sentiments. Notably, the stock has risen more than 200% over the past year, as the demand from data centers and server CPUs propelled it higher. Moreover, Intel’s foundry progress, plus geopolitical shifts favoring U.S. manufacturing, has rebuilt investor confidence. The company is also facing significant tailwinds from agentic AI.
The stock rose marginally intraday on April 21 after BNP Paribas analyst David O’Connor raised the rating on Intel to “Neutral” and gave a $60 price target. While the analyst was concerned about the company lagging behind other chip juggernauts like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Arm Holdings plc (ARM), he has now noted strong demand from hyperscalers for server CPUs for agentic AI.
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O’Connor also noted that Intel’s gains this year are likely driven more by better 14A datapoints, which are going better than expected. Intel 14A node is an advanced chip manufacturing technology. Recently, Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk stated that the EV maker plans to use the 14A technology at its Terafab project, marking the technology’s first major buyer.
KeyBanc analysts, led by John Vinh, are also favoring Intel due to the intact semiconductor cycle and the cyclical recovery about to begin. Vinh highlighted multiple factors in the recovery cycle, including shipments just above the trendline, which indicate more to come; decreasing aggregate supply chain inventories; and Q4 2025 IC shipment numbers.
We take a deeper look into Intel now.
About Intel Stock
Based in Santa Clara, California, Intel leads semiconductor innovation with a strong push into artificial intelligence (AI). It integrates AI hardware acceleration directly into its processors to support efficient small language models and generative AI on edge devices, in the cloud, and on AI PCs.
Through specialized developer tools and frameworks, Intel enables model fine-tuning and scalable inference across platforms, including its neural processing units and Gaudi accelerators. By combining chips, software, and systems into full AI solutions, the company powers robotics and intelligent-agent applications, solidifying its role in the AI landscape. The company has a market capitalization of $326 billion.
As agentic AI keeps demand buoyed for its client computing and data center segments, Intel’s stock has gained 228.22% over the past 52 weeks, while it has been up 83.14% year-to-date (YTD). Just for comparison, the S&P 500 Index ($SPX) has gained 32.27% and 3.87% over the same periods, respectively. The company’s shares reached a 52-week high of $70.32 on April 17, but it is down 5.2% from that level.
www.barchart.com Its 14-day RSI of 70.96 shows that the stock is flirting with overbought territory rather than the oversold territory. On a forward-adjusted basis, Intel’s price-to-earnings (non-GAAP) ratio of 117.78 times is considerably higher than the industry average of 24.15 times.
Intel Posted Solid 2025 Results Amid AI Gains
Intel’s annual revenue for 2025 was roughly flat year-over-year (YOY), coming in at $52.85 billion. Its non-GAAP gross margin of 36.7% reflected an increase of 0.7 percentage points YOY. The company also posted non-GAAP EPS of $0.42 in 2025, a turnaround from the $0.13 loss per share it reported a year earlier.
The company is on a path to become a “new Intel,” likely to be more AI-focused. Intel marked an important milestone with the introduction of its Intel 18A products, the latest development in Intel Foundry process technology. Intel is looking to expand its supply to meet customer demand.
Street analysts are robustly optimistic about Intel’s bottom line trajectory. For the current fiscal year, EPS is projected to surge 166.7% annually to $0.08, followed by a 600% increase to $0.56 in the next fiscal year. The company is expected to report its first-quarter 2026 results today, on April 23, after the market closes. Ahead of that, analysts expect it to report a $0.10-per-share loss (on a diluted basis).
What Do Analysts Think About Intel’s Stock?
Recently, analysts at HSBC upgraded Intel from “Hold” to “Buy” and raised the price target from $50 to a Street-high of $95. HSBC analyst Frank Lee believes the market is overlooking the company’s server CPU-led growth opportunity, which could be a near-term catalyst.
However, Wall Street analysts are overall cautious about Intel’s stock, with a consensus “Hold” rating. Of the 44 analysts rating the stock, five analysts gave a “Strong Buy” rating, two analysts gave a “Moderate Buy” rating, while a majority of 33 analysts are playing it safe with a “Hold” rating, one analyst suggested “Moderate Sell,” and three analysts gave a “Strong Sell” rating. The consensus price target of $54.87 represents a 17.7% downside from current levels. However, the Street-high HSBC-given price target of $95 indicates a 42.6% upside from current levels.
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www.barchart.com On the date of publication, Anushka Dutta did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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