Is Intel Stock A Buy After Its Worst Dip In Over A Year? Retail Traders Feel Selloff Is Overdone

• Intel’s soft quarterly forecast last week, along with ongoing supply-chain constraints and its foundry turnaround, fanned concerns about near-term pressure.
• The majority of the analysts recommend holding Intel, with just 17% recommending buying it at this point.
• Stocktwits sentiment climbed higher in the ‘extremely bullish’ zone following Intel’s Thursday report.

Retail investors see the post-earnings dip in Intel Corp.’s stock as a strong buying opportunity, according to a new Stocktwits poll. 

At least 60% of some 1,400 respondents believe the 17% drop on Friday – Intel stock’s worst since August 2024 – was an overreaction and recommend loading up, while 20% forecast further downside.
 

Curiously, retail sentiment for INTC has remained in the ‘extremely bullish’ zone for two weeks, and in fact moved a few points higher after Thursday’s earnings report. Message volume for the ticker rose 177% in the last week.

“$INTC Hold tight. Market is overreacting to the forward guidance,” said a user, while another forecasted a rebound to $50 soon and sideways trade after that.

Soft Forecast Fans Caution

Intel reported fourth-quarter revenue and profit above Wall Street’s expectations, but its quarterly forecast missed the market. It expects Q1 revenue between $11.7 billion and $12.7 billion, and adjusted earnings per share to break even, below the $12.51 billion in revenue and $0.05 profit estimated by the market, according to LSEG/Reuters.

Although Intel has made progress in its core areas, including recently launching its advanced Core Ultra Series 3 computer processors, the management admitted that it faltered in forecasting and meeting the high demand for AI data centers, leaving profitable data center sales on the table.

Over the weekend, analysts revised their price targets on INTC. Morgan Stanley, while raising its INTC target to $41 from $38, said the outlook reflects "meaningful supply constraints," which are "problematic," especially because Intel is in the midst of turning around its foundry business. Truist, meanwhile, raised its price target to $49 from $39, while RBC Capital Markets lowered its price target to $48 from $50, with both expressing concerns over Intel’s first-quarter outlook.

Currently, 33 of 47 analysts recommend ‘Hold’ for INTC, with eight advising ‘Buy’ or higher and six recommending ‘Sell’ or lower, according to Koyfin. Their average price target of $46.09 is just $1 over the stock’s last closing price.

Intel's stock rose 84% last year and continued its momentum into the new year, until it hit a roadblock last week. Still, shares are up by over 22% so far in January.

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.

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