Chip stock Intel (INTC) got a bit of good news today that did very little for its market performance today. A report out from NotebookCheck declared that Intel’s version of the new Surface laptop from Microsoft (MSFT) performs better than the version with Snapdragon processors. Yet, despite this clear win, Intel shareholders sold off shares, and Intel stock lost over 5% in Thursday afternoon’s trading. Intel has seen a 199.26% rally in its share price over the past year.
A Win Few Cared About
The report revealed that the Surface line that packed Intel Core Ultra X chips outperformed the Snapdragon processors in terms of both graphics performance and battery life. Interestingly, though, that performance upgrade did not extend to processor performance itself. That came in as “slightly lower” than the Snapdragon lineup. However, graphics were much faster, and the Intel chips could deliver performance without compatibility issues for a range of games as well as applications.
The processor updates turned out to be the biggest boosts to the line, the report noted, as many other features were left unchanged from previous versions. The SD card reader got a bit of an improvement, going to a reader with SD Express support, and Thunderbolt ports were included on the Intel line. But aside from these changes, the laptop was left much the same as it was in the last version.
Banking on ASICs
A report from CRN.com noted that Intel is putting a lot of hiring weight behind application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Several large tech firms have been turning to ASICs as an alternative to graphics processing units (GPUs), which were vital in the early days of artificial intelligence (AI) development, particularly in training. And with some frontier labs starting to get their own ASIC labs together, this represents an opportunity for Intel to step in and deliver.
Intel has actually had a presence in the ASIC market since the 1980s, the report noted. So for Intel to step back in would require comparatively little in the way of resources and manpower. And with Intel looking for new business wherever it can be found, its move to get back into ASICs should yield some substantial rewards.
Is Intel a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on INTC stock based on six Buys, 22 Holds and two Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. The average INTC price target of $115.23 per share implies 8.55% upside potential.
