First Merchants Corp Raises Stake in Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC)

First Merchants Corp lifted its stake in shares of Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC) by 79.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,778 shares of the chip maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,754 shares during the quarter. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Intel were worth $397,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Intel by 264.0% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 19,617,088 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $393,323,000 after buying an additional 14,227,458 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in Intel by 28.2% during the 3rd 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 acquiring an additional 12,865,308 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in Intel by 27.2% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 44,013,936 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $967,426,000 after acquiring an additional 9,422,136 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Intel by 224.8% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 10,413,544 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $244,302,000 after purchasing an additional 7,207,785 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its position in shares of 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.53% of the company’s stock.

Intel Stock Performance

Shares of Intel stock opened at $23.60 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.33. Intel Co. has a 1 year low of $18.51 and a 1 year high of $46.63. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $20.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.73. The firm has a market cap of $102.19 billion, a PE ratio of -5.39 and a beta of 1.08.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The chip maker reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.14). Intel had a negative return on equity of 3.27% and a negative net margin of 35.32%. Equities analysts forecast that Intel Co. will post -0.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group cut their price objective on Intel from $26.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Intel from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of Intel in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Intel from $23.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Intel from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-seven have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.60.

Intel Company Profile

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.