Today was a disaster for chip maker Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), as a new report out of China represents a serious potential blow to revenue and access in the Chinese market. The news was sufficient to send Intel shares down over 4.5% in Friday afternoon’s trading, but that wasn’t the only problem facing Intel today. New reports emerged about a vulnerability in Intel hardware that, apparently, is unfixable.
Reports note that the vulnerability in question went completely undetected for five years. It stems back to supply chain issues, which were a huge problem starting about four years ago. The problem impacts server hardware, specifically BMCs, a line of tiny computers added directly to a motherboard.
Those systems help make servers more efficient. However, reports also note that while the issue is largely beyond fixing, it’s useless for attackers to use unless they have “…a working exploit for a much more severe vulnerability.” So, in this case, address the big issues first, use the BMCs sparingly, and the problem should be fairly satisfied.
More Bad News Followed
An unfixable bug is a problem by anyone’s standards, and when you join it up with a huge blow to potential revenues out of China, that only makes matters worse. Then, just to top it off, Intel got thrown under the bus by Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), as it noted to anyone experiencing stability issues that they should contact “the CPU maker,” which would be Intel.
We’ve known for a while now that Intel has some issues with its chips, as they’ve been impacting games made using Unreal Engine, like Fortnite, and for Nvidia to point out that Intel is more likely the problem won’t do it any favors.
Is Intel Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on INTC stock based on five Buys, 24 Holds, and four Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 13.35% rally in its share price over the past year, the average INTC price target of $45.05 per share implies 25.87% upside potential.
