Short Interest in Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC) Grows By 10.7%

Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 116,390,000 shares, a growth of 10.7% from the December 15th total of 105,180,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 68,450,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.7 days.

Intel Price Performance

NASDAQ:INTC traded up $1.82 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $21.49. The stock had a trading volume of 163,396,661 shares, compared to its average volume of 50,908,592. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $21.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $23.32. Intel has a one year low of $18.51 and a one year high of $50.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.31.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The chip maker reported ($0.46) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.02) by ($0.44). Intel had a negative net margin of 29.42% and a negative return on equity of 1.71%. The company had revenue of $13.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Intel will post -0.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of Intel in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $17.00 price objective on shares of Intel in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Intel from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $25.00 price objective (down previously from $28.00) on shares of Intel in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on Intel from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-five have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.88.

Insider Transactions at Intel

In other news, EVP Michelle Johnston Holthaus sold 25,000 shares of Intel stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.00, for a total transaction of $650,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 273,258 shares in the company, valued at $7,104,708. The trade was a 8.38 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Intel

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its position in Intel by 2.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 197,958,739 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $4,644,112,000 after purchasing an additional 5,417,753 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Intel by 4.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 92,510,098 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $2,162,891,000 after buying an additional 4,103,553 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in shares of Intel by 28.2% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 58,469,412 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $1,371,692,000 after buying an additional 12,865,308 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Intel by 27.2% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 44,013,936 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $967,426,000 after buying an additional 9,422,136 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of Intel by 1.3% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 37,513,226 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $1,161,779,000 after buying an additional 487,191 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 64.53% of the company’s stock.

About Intel

Intel Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells computing and related products and services worldwide. It operates through Client Computing Group, Data Center and AI, Network and Edge, Mobileye, and Intel Foundry Services segments. The company's products portfolio comprises central processing units and chipsets, system-on-chips (SoCs), and multichip packages; mobile and desktop processors; hardware products comprising graphics processing units (GPUs), domain-specific accelerators, and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs); and memory and storage, connectivity and networking, and other semiconductor products.