{"id":4925,"date":"2026-05-25T15:17:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T15:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/?p=4925"},"modified":"2026-05-25T15:17:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T15:17:46","slug":"intel-stock-up-225-but-analysts-still-urge-caution-should-investors-listen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/?p=4925","title":{"rendered":"Intel stock up 225% but analysts still urge caution: should investors listen?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Intel stock (NASDAQ: INTC) have surged 225% in 2026, marking a sharp turnaround for a company many investors had written off just a year ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The chipmaker, once treated as dead money beside Nvidia, AMD and TSMC, has suddenly become one of the market\u2019s most dramatic comeback trades. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Its shares recently traded near $120, after a blistering year-to-date surge, but the odd part is this: analysts are still not fully convinced. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The Street\u2019s average price target sits well below the current stock price, suggesting investors may have run far ahead of the earnings story.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Intel stock: From dead money to AI darling<\/h2>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Intel\u2019s rally has been powered by a sharp change in narrative as a year ago, investors were still focused on the company\u2019s manufacturing delays, market-share losses and heavy foundry spending. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Now, the market is looking at Intel as a potential beneficiary of AI infrastructure demand, especially as CPUs regain importance in inference and agentic AI workloads.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The first-quarter numbers helped change the mood. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Intel reported revenue of $13.6 billion, up 7% year on year, while non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.29.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">That was a major improvement from the year-ago period and well above the near-breakeven expectations that had shaped sentiment before earnings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">More importantly, the growth came from the parts of the company investors wanted to see working.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Data Centre and AI revenue rose 22% to $5.1 billion, while Intel Foundry revenue increased 16% to $5.4 billion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Then came the Apple angle. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/invezz.com\/news\/2026\/05\/11\/apple-deal-fails-to-lift-bofas-view-on-intel-stock\/\">Intel has reportedly reached a preliminary agreement to manufacture some chips for Apple<\/a>, a deal that would mark a major credibility boost for its foundry ambitions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">If confirmed and scaled, that would suggest Intel\u2019s manufacturing turnaround is becoming more than a slide-deck promise.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Wall Street is not buying the hype <\/h2>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The rally has not turned analysts into a cheering section. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">According to S&amp;P Global data, 48 analysts have a consensus rating of Hold on Intel, with an average 12-month price target of $87.86. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">That implies roughly 27% downside from recent levels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The split tells the story as Intel has more bullish voices than it did a year ago, but the consensus remains cautious. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Tigress Financial\u2019s Ivan Feinseth is one of the optimists as he raised his price target to $118 from $66 and kept a Buy rating, citing Intel\u2019s \u201cincredibly strong\u201d first quarter, 18A execution and momentum across AI data centres and PCs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The bear case is valuation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">After such a sharp move, Intel is no longer priced like a turnaround stock waiting for proof. It is priced like a company that has already fixed most of its problems. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">That is a tougher setup as Seeking Alpha\u2019s May downgrade captured the concern bluntly, arguing that Intel\u2019s forward multiple had become stretched relative to AMD and Nvidia despite slower growth and still-heavy execution risk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">There are also real business questions left. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Intel\u2019s foundry turnaround is promising, but it is not finished as the company still has to prove that 18A can ramp cleanly, that 14A can attract external customers, and that margins can hold up as advanced packaging and manufacturing investment remain expensive.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/invezz.com\/news\/2026\/05\/25\/intel-stock-up-225-but-analysts-still-urge-caution-should-investors-listen\/\">Intel stock up 225% but analysts still urge caution: should investors listen?<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/invezz.com\">Invezz<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Intel stock (NASDAQ: INTC) have surged 225% in 2026, marking a sharp turnaround for a company many investors had written off just a year ago.The chipmaker, once treated as dead money beside Nvidia, AMD and TSMC, has suddenly become one of the market\u2019s most dramatic comeback trades. Its shares recently traded near $120, after a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}