Intel Stock (NASDAQ:INTC) Slides on New Developments, Old Faces
Today turned out to be an oddly mixed day for chip stock Intel (INTC). It brought out some exciting news about the upcoming Battlemage CPU lineup, and some new bits about its role in a high-powered laptop, or rather, a laptop with high battery power in it. It also lost some names in its sales force that might be concerning. All of this together added up to concern from investors, as Intel shares slid over 2% in Friday afternoon's trading.
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First, there's the Arc B770, a development that is proving a surprising winner for Intel as it gets more into the graphics processing unit (GPU) market space. The B770, the latest in the series, is still expected to hit in the fourth quarter of this year. This should be particularly good news if it can lean toward the front half of the fourth quarter as opposed to the back, which would make the B770 one doozy of a Christmas shopping item.
Second, there is the boost from Lenovo (LNVGY), by way of the ThinkPad T14s, Gen 6. Reports note that this laptop comes with a hefty 21 hours of battery life, and a lot of that is thanks to Intel's Lunar Lake processors, which serve as the underpinnings of this laptop. Reports call it an '…ideal balance between great everyday performance and efficiency.'
And Then, The Losses
This was all good news for Intel, but not all the news was so pleasant. Intel lost two fairly major names in its operation: its data center sales leader, and its public sector sales leader. Both Uday Yadati, who ran the data center sales, and Cameron Chehreh, who handled public sector, left the company recently.
Yadati's departure was unexpected, reports note, and Chehreh first announced his departure on LinkedIn late Wednesday, reports noted. Yadati was, apparently, made a better offer elsewhere as he left to '…pursue another opportunity,' reports noted. And Chehreh was leaving to return to his 'software roots,' serving as president and general manager at a startup.
Is Intel a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on INTC stock based on one Buy, 26 Holds and four Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 33.11% loss in its share price over the past year, the average INTC price target of $21.29 per share implies 5.76% upside potential.
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