TLDR
- President Trump said he regrets asking for only a 10% stake in Intel, saying “I should have asked for more”
- INTC was up 0.68% in premarket trading Monday at $109.51, outperforming a broadly cautious market
- Intel’s last quarter beat expectations: EPS of $0.29 vs. $0.01 estimate, revenue of $13.58B vs. $12.32B estimate
- North Dakota State Investment Board opened a new $5.53M position in Intel in Q4
- Analyst consensus remains Hold, with an average price target of $77.38 — well below current trading levels
President Trump reignited interest in Intel on Monday after a Fortune interview in which he said the U.S. government should have asked for more than 10% of the chipmaker.
“He said, ‘You have a deal.’ I said, ‘Shit, I should have asked for more,'” Trump said, recounting the conversation.
INTC was trading at $109.51 in premarket Monday, up 0.68%, while broader markets were slightly negative — Nasdaq futures were down 0.14%, suggesting the move was stock-specific.
Trump framed the Intel stake as part of a wider economic playbook combining tariffs, strategic equity positions, and large trade deals to attract foreign capital to the U.S. He also cited the national debt at “$38 trillion” as a reason for exploring unconventional government involvement in corporate outcomes.
It’s the kind of headline that moves a stock, and it did.
Intel’s longer-term chart has been one of the more dramatic in the semiconductor space. The stock is trading 11.9% above its 20-day SMA and 143.8% above its 200-day SMA. A golden cross formed in August 2025, and the uptrend has been steep since.
The 52-week range tells the story: a low of $18.97 and a high of $132.75. That’s a wide range, and Intel is sitting in the upper portion of it.
Earnings Beat, But Caution Remains
Intel’s most recent quarterly results gave bulls something to point to. The company posted EPS of $0.29, beating the $0.01 consensus by $0.28. Revenue came in at $13.58 billion against an estimate of $12.32 billion — a clean beat on both lines.
Revenue was up 7.4% year-over-year. For a company that spent much of the past two years under pressure, that number matters.
Intel has set Q2 2026 EPS guidance at $0.20. Analysts expect $0.63 EPS for the full fiscal year, and the next earnings report is estimated for July 23, 2026.
Despite the strong quarter, Wall Street’s consensus remains cautious. The average analyst price target sits at $77.38 — roughly 30% below where the stock is currently trading.
Analyst Calls and Institutional Moves
Mizuho raised its price target to $124 on May 12, keeping a Neutral rating. RBC Capital Markets held at Sector Perform with an $80 target. Tigress Financial Partners reiterated Buy and raised its target to $118.
The spread between targets tells its own story — analysts are not aligned, and the stock has run past most of their models.
On the institutional side, North Dakota State Investment Board opened a new position worth $5.53 million in Q4, buying 149,868 shares. Several smaller advisors also increased positions during the quarter.
An Intel EVP, April Miller Boise, sold 40,256 shares on May 1st at an average price of $99.53, reducing her position by 27.7%.
Intel also announced it is the official compute partner of McLaren Racing, adding a visible real-world showcase for its chips.
Erste Group Bank raised its FY2026 and FY2027 earnings estimates for Intel, while some analysts continue to flag competitive pressure from AMD and Arm in server CPUs.
Key resistance sits at $132.75 — the 52-week high.
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