Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. Trims Holdings in Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC)

Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. reduced its stake in Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC) by 26.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 49,441 shares of the chip maker’s stock after selling 17,740 shares during the quarter. Meridian Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Intel were worth $991,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Intel by 4.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 92,510,098 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $2,162,891,000 after purchasing an additional 4,103,553 shares during the period. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC grew its stake in shares of Intel by 211.6% in the 4th quarter. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC now owns 28,898 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $579,000 after buying an additional 19,625 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Intel by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,827,123 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $113,244,000 after buying an additional 204,200 shares during the period. Empirical Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Intel during the 4th quarter worth approximately $276,000. Finally, InvesTrust purchased a new stake in shares of Intel during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,696,000. 64.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Intel Stock Down 3.9 %

Intel stock opened at $22.71 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $22.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $22.16. The company has a market capitalization of $98.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.18 and a beta of 1.02. 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 fifty-two week low of $18.51 and a fifty-two week high of $45.41.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Intel in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Intel from $25.00 to $21.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Intel in a research report on Friday, January 31st. HSBC upgraded shares of Intel from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Mizuho cut their target price on Intel from $23.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-eight have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.04.

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.