We recently published a list of Jim Cramer’s Latest Calls: Top 10 Stocks. Since Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) ranks 3rd on the list, it deserves a deeper look.

Jim Cramer in a latest program said that if companies would “own up” to the changing circumstances, things would be “so much easier” for them as well as investors.

“There is so much information and misinformation flying around at this point in the earnings season that it’s very easy to be led astray,” Cramer said.

Cramer thinks companies are “leaving out” important information which can cause investors to make “faulty decisions.”

As an example, Cramer talked about how food and beverage companies are not talking about the impact of weight loss drugs on their financials

Cramer said that GLP-1 drugs are extremely “powerful” and they cause a decline in cravings for snacks and liquor. This, according to Cramer, directly affects beverage and snack companies. However, Cramer said these companies are intentionally not mentioning the impact of these drugs.

“I wonder how long they can maintain this fiction, it’ll be better if they just own that it’s a problem rather than just ignoring it.”

Cramer was also furious that consumer companies are not admitting that high prices are impacting their financials. He said hotels and entertainment companies raised prices in the past but now they are not willing to bring them down despite facing pricing headwinds.

Cramer also called the claims that huge AI investments are not bringing any solid results for companies “absurd.”

We watched several latest programs of Jim Cramer on CNBC and picked 10 important stocks he’s talking about. With each stock 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).

Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC)

Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 77

Talking about Intel, Jim Cramer said in a latest program on CNBC that part of the problem with Intel is that they are spending a lot of money on fabs but they “don’t have any customers.”

“There is a sense that the company is in much worse straits than we realized,” Cramer said.

Cramer also said that Intel does not have the “horses.” Asked what does he mean by that, here is what he said:

“You have to spend a fortune to get these things going, we moved our foundries to Taiwan because it’s much cheaper.”

Cramer also said that Intel CEO Patrick P. Gelsinger was “incoherent” on the latest earnings call. Cramer also believes Intel’s problems are now “over his (Gelsinger’s) head.”

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 Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) ranks 3rd on Insider Monkey’s list titled Jim Cramer’s Latest Calls: Top 10 Stocks. While we acknowledge the potential of Intel Corporation (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.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.