Intel may face harder times in the near term as sales of personal computers falter, but investors should focus on the chip maker’s longer-term opportunities, Raymond James says.
On Tuesday, analyst Srini Pajjuri reiterated an Outperform rating for Intel shares and raised his target for the stock price to $48 from $42.
Last month, Dell Technologies posted disappointing financial results for its latest quarter, saying demand for PCs had weakened in the previous two months. At the time, a Dell executive said there was strong demand for AI servers but that a sustainable recovery in sales of traditional computers would take longer.
“We are lowering 1Q24 estimates to reflect DELL’s recent comments on near-term PC softness but are raising our price target … on higher conviction in Intel’s turnaround progress,” Pajjuri wrote. “AI is an emerging opportunity for the company inside and outside the data center. In addition, Intel is making good progress in leading edge Foundry business.”
Intel has prioritized its Foundry Services unit as part of CEO Pat Gelsinger’s efforts to turn around the chip maker. Intel hopes to provide companies that design chips but don’t make them in-house with a domestic alternative to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.
The analyst is confident Intel will meet its objectives to advance its chip manufacturing capabilities and become more attractive to new customers.
He also cited the company’s $2 billion pipeline of orders for Gaudi AI accelerators, Intel’s AI-focused chip products, and expressed optimism about Intel’s ability to sell these chips to enterprises for smaller industry-specific AI models.
“AI PC is another emerging opportunity that could offer solid incremental opportunities as applications such as Microsoft Copilot gain broader adoption,” he wrote.
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