We recently published a list of Top 10 Latest AI News, Earnings and Analyst Ratings You Should Not Miss. Since Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) ranks 10th on the list, it deserves a deeper look.
Tech stocks are continuing to decline amid fears the Fed is taking too long to begin interest rate cuts, stoked by the latest jobs data that showed unemployment is rising. However, some analysts believe the latest decline in AI stocks is part of a normal market rotation and gives investors an opportunity to buy. While talking to CNBC in a latest program, Michael Landsberg of Landsberg Bennett Private Wealth said that the latest decline is a “little bit of a reset, obviously.” The analyst said that AI stocks had a “great run” and the latest pullback is a “typical process” of market rotation.
“It doesn’t mean we are not positive longer term on AI but when you have big runs like that that’s why you rebalance portfolios to keep the risk in check,” Landsberg said.
Asked if the AI bubble has popped and this is the end of the AI hype, the analyst said “absolutely not” and called the recent pullback “deceleration” from growth and “normalization.”
Landsberg said that the earnings season will “separate the wheat from the chaff” and believes major tech companies will still drive earnings in the future.
For this article, we scanned the latest AI news, earnings, and analyst ratings and picked the 10 biggest stocks moving on these developments. With each company, we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
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Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 77
Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) shares recently saw a bloodbath following the company’s weak Q2 results and disappointing guidance. The results show the AI growth everyone was talking about won’t come cheap. Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) expects its gross margin in the third quarter to decline to 34.5% from 38.7% reported in the second quarter, which was a significant decline from the company’s expectation of 43.5%.
While Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) has suspended its dividend and announced massive layoffs, its problem of inventory won’t be resolved anytime soon. Intel has 137 days of inventory, worth over $11.2 billion. This is much higher than the industry average of 90 days. Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) has close to $52 billion in long-term debt and analysts believe its cost-cutting measures along with AI growth initiatives won’t let it fix this problem soon. S&P Global recently put the stock’s credit rating on “watch” saying:
“While these cost-cutting measures, including significant capital expenditure reductions, could alleviate some near-term cash-flow-generation challenges, it is unclear whether these steps will be sufficient to maintain its business competitiveness and enable healthy growth.”
Raymond James said in a report after earnings that Intel’s margin issues are expected to continue until 2025. AI PC growth has become a larger headwind for margins, as the higher cost of external wafers offsets modest average selling price premiums.
Amid these factors, investors are better off looking for other AI stocks and avoid Intel for now until there’s visibility on how exactly Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) would resolve its core problems.
ClearBridge Large Cap Value Strategy stated the following regarding Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“The massive ramp up in spending on AI spending has crowded out spending in other technology verticals such as software and traditional enterprise infrastructure. This has also driven a market where “AI winners” have enjoyed strong multiple expansion, while perceived “AI losers” have been severely punished. One example of a perceived AI loser temporarily cast aside was the Strategy’s top detractor for the quarter, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), whose shares declined as it put out financial targets for 2027 that were below Wall Street expectations, and also noted that demand for its core PC and server chips remained depressed. We take a contrarian view of Intel and do not think it will be an AI loser, but rather see underappreciated opportunity as AI PCs ramp over the next few quarters in enterprises, where Intel has a stronghold. We also believe that the company’s technology roadmap remains intact, which we believe will lead to a stabilization in market share in its core PC and server markets. Both markets remain depressed, but we believe that aging infrastructure and the ongoing growth of IT workloads will lead to a cyclical recovery in both markets, which should benefit shares.”
Overall, Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) ranks 10th on Insider Monkey’s list titled Top 10 Latest AI News, Earnings and Analyst Ratings You Should Not Miss. While we acknowledge the potential of Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC), our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than INTC but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: Analyst Sees a New $25 Billion “Opportunity” for NVIDIA and Jim Cramer is Recommending These Stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
