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3 days ago
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2 Brilliant Stocks to Buy With $100 and Hold for 5 Years
Intel's focus on aggressive cost-cutting and edge AI help position it as a turnaround story. Toast is improving its revenue mix and increasing client adoption of its AI-powered tools. 10 stocks we like better than Intel › The U.S. equity markets have been quite turbulent in 2025, affected by escalating geopolitical pressures, protectionist tariffs, and high interest rates. Not surprisingly, investors are shying away from high-growth, high-risk stocks and moving toward defensive plays. Yet, this period of volatility also offers long-term investors an opportunity to buy exceptional stocks at reasonable prices. All that is needed is a modest sum of $100, not required to pay for immediate needs. Buying even one of these two fundamentally strong businesses below can position you on a multi-year growth trajectory. Here's why. Intel's (NASDAQ: INTC) recent earnings performance for the first quarter was mixed. While revenue and earnings surpassed consensus estimates, investors were disappointed by the company's weak guidance for the second quarter of fiscal 2025. Despite this, many factors are working in Intel's favor, especially with the company hiring Lip-Bu Tan, who's credited with the turnaround of Cadence Design Systems, as its new CEO. The company has plans to aggressively reduce operating expenses to $17 billion in fiscal 2025, $500 million lower than the previous estimate, and to $16 billion in fiscal 2026. Intel also focuses on better asset utilization to reduce capital expenditures (capex) from the last estimate of $20 billion to $18 billion. Beyond cost savings, Intel is also gearing up to become a significant beneficiary of the ongoing AI revolution. While Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices are ahead in the AI race, Intel is now developing full-stack AI solutions to enable the next wave of AI-powered computing. The company aims to improve accuracy, power efficiency, and security in running next-generation enterprise workloads such as reasoning models, physical AI, and agentic AI. Intel is also focusing on the edge AI market, which is estimated to grow from $53.5 billion in 2025 to $82 billion in 2030. Gartner expects half of the enterprise-managed data to be processed outside data centers or the cloud, in manufacturing plants, retail outlets, and healthcare facilities. These applications require low power and efficient architectures in areas where the company has excelled. Intel's 18A manufacturing process technology has also become a significant competitive advantage, thanks to its higher performance and improved power efficiency. With this technology, the company has built an AI PC client processor called Panther Lake and a server processor called Clearwater Forest. By demonstrating successful "booting of operating systems without additional configurations or modifications," these processors have highlighted the strength of 18A process technology. Subsequently, Intel Foundry has now emerged as an underappreciated asset in the company's portfolio. It's added two companies in the defense industry, while industry reports claim that Amazon and Microsoft are also exploring partnerships for 18A capabilities. Furthermore, Intel Foundry also engages with customers for Intel 14A process technology (a successor to 18A). Intel shares are trading 1.7 times sales, lower than their five-year average of 2.3. Hence, considering the company's many tailwinds and bargain valuation, the stock appears a smart buy now. In the past few years, Toast (NYSE: TOST) has transformed itself from a basic mobile payment application company into a complete operating system for the restaurant industry, including kitchen operations, restaurant and menu services, inventory tracking, payment processing, multilocation management, customer engagement, and data analytics. Toast currently serves 140,000 restaurant locations in the U.S., only 10% of the 1.4 million locations across its customer segments. While the company's current stronghold is in the U.S. small-to-medium-sized business market, management also focuses on enterprise customers, food and beverage retail, and international market clients. This indicates massive room for growth in the existing markets. Toast has leveraged advanced AI-powered technologies to boost average order volume and ensure effective advertising. The company has launched an AI engine, ToastIQ, which combines AI, restaurant expertise, and proprietary data. ToastIQ's features help clients with business insights, troubleshooting, marketing, employee scheduling, and pricing. The company's recent financial and operational performance for the first quarter has been impressive. Revenue was up 24.4% year over year to $1.34 billion, while operating income was $43 million, a dramatic improvement from the $56 million loss in the same period last year. Subscription revenue increased by 38% to $209 million. This shift toward more visible, sticky, and higher-margin subscription revenues is a positive. The company also reported free cash flows of $69 million -- an impressive feat, since the first quarter is typically the seasonally weakest. Toast added over 6,000 net new locations to reach approximately 140,000 total locations in the first quarter. This also included major enterprise wins, which are strong positives, as they usually demonstrate significant annual recurring revenues and lower churn rates. Toast trades at about 5 times sales, higher than its three-year average of 3.8. Although the valuation may appear expensive, it seems justified for a company with a huge addressable market, strong financial and operational metrics, and a broad customer base. Hence, the stock looks like a worthwhile buy now. Before you buy stock in Intel, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Intel wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $653,389!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $830,492!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 982% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Manali Pradhan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Amazon, Cadence Design Systems, Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Toast. The Motley Fool recommends Gartner and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft, short August 2025 $24 calls on Intel, and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 2 Brilliant Stocks to Buy With $100 and Hold for 5 Years was originally published by The Motley Fool
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
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Intel says foundry business won't break even until 14A in 2027
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Currently, Intel's Foundry division loses billions every quarter as it invests heavily in new process technologies and production capacity. However, the company hopes that the Intel Foundry unit will break even sometime in 2027, which will coincide with the rollout out Intel's 14A manufacturing technology and production start on 18A-P node. Intel this week reaffirmed that the first product made on its 18A (1.8nm-class) fabrication process, the client PC processor (codenamed Panther Lake), will hit the market late this year and will ramp next year. The manufacturing technology will also be adopted for Xeon 'Clearwater Forest' and some third-party products, but from Intel's Foundry business perspective, 18A is will be a proof-of-concept for external clients. If this production node is a success, more potential customers will adopt its successors, including 18A-P, and 14A (1.4nm-class). "I think we do need to see more external volume come from 14A versus versus 18A, said David Zinsner, chief financial officer of Intel, at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference. "We have […] a bunch of bunch of potential customers, and then we get test chips, and then some customers fall out in the test chips, and then there is a certain amount of customers that kind of hang in there. So, committed volume is not significant right now, for sure. But, you know, I think we have got to partly prove ourselves a little bit with our own product and eat our own dog food here, and then […] we start to see some engagement around customers." Zinsner admitted that if the company choses to use High-NA EUV lithography with its 14A process technology — as it plans to at the moment — its costs will go up initially. Intel hopes that advantages enabled by the new fab tools will outweigh those higher costs. Like other contract chipmakers, Intel does not comment on its clients. The company also intends to produce more of its own silicon in house with its Panther Lake and Nova Lake CPUs, which will improve Intel's margins and its utilization of production capacities. As a result, Intel hopes that its Foundry unit will break even in 2027 and will be profitable from then on. "We still feel on track to to hit breakeven sometime in 2027," Zinsner said. "You know, I think when we committed to it in 2024, we said, 'it is going to be somewhere between 2024 and 2030, most people kind of settled in that that must mean 2027, and that is generally kind of what we are thinking is we can be breakeven." To break even, Intel Foundry only needs low- to mid-single-digit billions in annual external revenue, according to Zinsner. Most of 18A's volume will come from Intel's internal products, while 14A will require more external adoption. Intel's breakeven strategy also includes revenue from advanced packaging, mature nodes (like Intel 16), and partnerships with UMC and Tower. The company will continues to follow its 'smart capital' model, balancing internal and external wafer sourcing, and expects Foundry to compete for internal product demand to ensure efficiency and cost Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
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Intel says foundry business won't break even until 14A in 2027
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Currently, Intel's Foundry division loses billions every quarter as it invests heavily in new process technologies and production capacity. However, the company hopes that the Intel Foundry unit will break even sometime in 2027, which will coincide with the rollout out Intel's 14A manufacturing technology and production start on 18A-P node. Intel this week reaffirmed that the first product made on its 18A (1.8nm-class) fabrication process, the client PC processor (codenamed Panther Lake), will hit the market late this year and will ramp next year. The manufacturing technology will also be adopted for Xeon 'Clearwater Forest' and some third-party products, but from Intel's Foundry business perspective, 18A is will be a proof-of-concept for external clients. If this production node is a success, more potential customers will adopt its successors, including 18A-P, and 14A (1.4nm-class). "I think we do need to see more external volume come from 14A versus versus 18A, said David Zinsner, chief financial officer of Intel, at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference. "We have […] a bunch of bunch of potential customers, and then we get test chips, and then some customers fall out in the test chips, and then there is a certain amount of customers that kind of hang in there. So, committed volume is not significant right now, for sure. But, you know, I think we have got to partly prove ourselves a little bit with our own product and eat our own dog food here, and then […] we start to see some engagement around customers." Zinsner admitted that if the company choses to use High-NA EUV lithography with its 14A process technology — as it plans to at the moment — its costs will go up initially. Intel hopes that advantages enabled by the new fab tools will outweigh those higher costs. Like other contract chipmakers, Intel does not comment on its clients. The company also intends to produce more of its own silicon in house with its Panther Lake and Nova Lake CPUs, which will improve Intel's margins and its utilization of production capacities. As a result, Intel hopes that its Foundry unit will break even in 2027 and will be profitable from then on. "We still feel on track to to hit breakeven sometime in 2027," Zinsner said. "You know, I think when we committed to it in 2024, we said, 'it is going to be somewhere between 2024 and 2030, most people kind of settled in that that must mean 2027, and that is generally kind of what we are thinking is we can be breakeven." To break even, Intel Foundry only needs low- to mid-single-digit billions in annual external revenue, according to Zinsner. Most of 18A's volume will come from Intel's internal products, while 14A will require more external adoption. Intel's breakeven strategy also includes revenue from advanced packaging, mature nodes (like Intel 16), and partnerships with UMC and Tower. The company will continues to follow its 'smart capital' model, balancing internal and external wafer sourcing, and expects Foundry to compete for internal product demand to ensure efficiency and cost Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
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15-03-2025
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Intel reaches 'exciting milestone' for 18A 1.8nm-class wafers with first run at Arizona fab
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. While the whole market was looking at the appointment of Lip-Bu Tan as Intel chief executive, there was another major development at the company this week: The first 18A (1.8nm-class) wafers are running around Intel's Arizona fab. Intel's Fab 52 and Fab 62 in Arizona are high-volume production facilities, so running 18A fabs there is a major milestone for the company. "Exciting Milestone for Intel 18A," wrote Pankaj Marria, an engineering manager at Intel, in a LinkedIn post that was eventually hidden but captured by @Mojo_flyin on X. "Proud to be part of the Eagle Team, leading the way in bringing Intel 18A technology to life! Our team was at the forefront of running the initial lots right here in Arizona, marking a key step in advancing cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing." Up until recently, Intel processed wafers on its 18A production technology at its site near Hillsboro, Oregon, where new manufacturing processes are developed. While the company can volume produce chips in Oregon as well, porting this new fabrication process to a brand-new fab in Arizona is indeed a milestone for the company. For now, the company is running test wafers to ensure that the fabrication process transfer is a success, but eventually the fab will start running actual chips for commercial products. Intel is set to mass produce compute chiplets for its upcoming codenamed Panther Lake processors on 18A technology later this year. Eventually, Intel's 18A production node will be used to make Intel's Xeon 7 codenamed Clearwater Forest processor for datacenters. Intel pins a lot of hope on the upcoming 18A fabrication process. The manufacturing technology relies on gate-all-around RibbonFET transistors that promise to increase performance and cut down power consumption. It also features backside power delivery, which is meant to ensure steady power delivery to power-hungry processors and increase transistor density by decoupling signal and power wires within a chip. "This achievement is a testament to the hard work, innovation, and dedication of everyone involved. The Eagle has landed, and this is just the beginning! Developed and Made in America the world's smallest node," Marria added. Sign in to access your portfolio
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28-02-2025
- Business
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Jim Cramer on Intel Corporation (INTC): ‘Don't Expect the Stock to Go Up'
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) stands against other top AI news everyone is talking about. Jim Cramer in a latest program on CNBC talked about the ongoing 'rebellion' against the data center and the impact of tariffs on the broader market. Cramer said that data centers have been a key story in the stock market for months but now it's losing steam due to a variety of factors. He also mentioned the weakening economic indicators. 'I know these tariffs have people on edge. Consumer confidence indicators have just plummeted. Interest rates are sinking for fear of an economy gone soft. The key 10-year Treasury yield is back to where it was in mid-December when many thought we were looking at many more rate cuts than we've gotten. We have had to put rate cuts talk on hold. Now it's right back because there's a newfound paralysis—too many things happening at once, scaring people.' Cramer said that the 'seeds of doubt' about data center chip demand were sown following the launch of DeepSeek and the market is still reeling from its effects. READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In For this article we picked 10 AI stocks the market is buzzing about these days. 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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (). Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 68 Jim Cramer recently commented on Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)'s latest quarterly results on CNBC. 'I thought the cash flow was very good, better than I expected. The first quarter is historically not a great quarter for Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC); it will not be a great quarter. But I think they're trying to stabilize the ship by talking about how they have enough cash to be able to get through. There was no Messianic message about Intel. Don't expect the stock to go up, but perhaps the trajectory will not be just straight.' Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) latest results have increased fears the company will need a lot of time before seeing any kind of significant improvement. In the first quarter, the company sees revenue of $12.2 billion at the midpoint of its guidance, reflecting an 11-18% decline quarter-over-quarter. The company has also scrapped its plans to launch Falcon Shores, its next-generation AI GPUs. A few months back it was a key catalyst expected to debut in late 2025. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) Clearwater Forest AI data center server CPUs, which were set to use its 18A chip (similar to TSMC's 3nm nodes), have had their launch delayed from FY2025 to FY2026. These setbacks are likely to affect Intel's already struggling Data Center & AI business segment. Consensus expectations suggest the company won't see positive free cash flow for at least the next three years. Invesco Growth and Income Fund stated the following regarding Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) in its Q3 2024 investor letter: 'Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC): The chipmaker reported weaker-than-expected quarterly results as revenues declined and earnings were below expectations. Management also provided weaker guidance going forward; the stock fell on the news. We sold the position during the quarter. Overall, INTC ranks 7th on our list of top AI news everyone is talking about. While we acknowledge the potential of INTC as investment, our conviction lies in the belief that under the radar AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. 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: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
