Analysts see hope in Intel’s earnings but remain wary of structural troubles

Analysts see hope in Intel’s earnings but remain wary of structural troubles


Intel posts surprise Q2 profit: Shares rise as Well Street cheers cost cuts

Intel noted stronger-than-anticipated success for the 2nd quarter Thursday night, beating on the top and bottom lines. It was a welcome glimmer of hope for analysts and traders, as the business struggled in the previous quarters to distinct inventory and retool for artificial intelligence-centric, GPU-major company spend.

Shares of Intel were up about 5% Friday morning.

Wall Avenue analysts mostly cheered the outcomes, pushed in substantial aspect by Computer product sales, but cautioned that the corporation had greater challenges that would provide important headwinds.

“Excellent outcomes,” Citi analyst Christopher Danely claimed in a Friday note, “but structural challenges continue to be.” Citi reiterated a neutral score and a $34 price concentrate on.

“We envisioned expending on Nvidia GPUs to come at the price of Intel and AMD CPUs, and Intel said the information center market will be weak for a when. In addition, Intel proceeds to chase growth in marketplaces the place we imagine it will not thrive, these types of as foundry and graphics,” Danely wrote.

Deutsche Financial institution, which described Intel’s figures as “more than marginal,” preserved its Hold rating but increased its value focus on from $32 to $38, citing “abated” inventory difficulties. But the business will most likely confront continued pressures with corporate paying out shifting toward AI, Deutsche Bank analyst Ross Seymore mentioned.

JPMorgan, in the meantime, maintained an underweight ranking on the stock, the equivalent of a sell. Analysts greater Intel’s price target from $30 to $35 and lauded the company’s “greater-than-predicted success. But, JPMorgan pointed out, while ongoing execution improvement was a constructive indication, strengthening output and shipments of server- and client-side merchandise would be the up coming obstacle.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger reported on a phone with analysts the firm even now sees “persistent weak spot” in all segments of its business through yr-finish, and that server chip revenue would not recuperate until eventually the fourth quarter. He also explained cloud corporations ended up concentrating much more on securing graphics processors for AI instead of Intel’s central processors.

— CNBC’s Kif Leswing and Michael Bloom contributed to this report.



Supply

Cramer’s week ahead: Record highs meet a pivotal week for tech earnings
Technology

Cramer’s week ahead: Record highs meet a pivotal week for tech earnings

Key Points CNBC’s Jim Cramer said the market has become a “beast”, driven by a powerful rally in data center and AI-related stocks. He then turned to the week ahead, where a packed slate of tech earnings will test whether the surge can continue or if expectations have gotten too high. CNBC’s Jim Cramer said […]

Read More
Nvidia stock closes at record, pushing market cap past  trillion
Technology

Nvidia stock closes at record, pushing market cap past $5 trillion

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang gestures during the NVIDIA GTC global AI conference in San Jose, California, U.S. March 17, 2026. Carlos Barria | Reuters Nvidia shares closed at a record on Friday for the first time since October, pushing the company’s market cap past $5 trillion, as investors piled into the AI chip trade ahead […]

Read More
Amazon custom chips get a boost from Meta, giving the cloud giant another path to win in AI
Technology

Amazon custom chips get a boost from Meta, giving the cloud giant another path to win in AI

Amazon stock is finally getting the breakout we have been waiting for — and another artificial intelligence chip win on Friday may help explain why. Shares of the e-commerce and cloud giant popped nearly 3% to above $263 each, on track for their second record-high close this week. The latest catalyst: Friday morning’s announcement that […]

Read More