Intel stock forecast after boosting its guidance: time to buy?

Intel stock jumped in the extended hours as the company published strong financial results and boosted its forward guidance. INTC soared to $110, a significant increase from this month’s low of $89.65. What next for these shares?

Intel stock jumps after strong earnings

INTC shares jumped after the semiconductor giant published strong financial results, helped by its data center business. 

Its revenue jumped by 25% in the second quarter to $16.1 billion, with its gross margin soaring to 40.45 as chip prices jumped. 

Lip-Bu Tan, the CEO hailed the results as the strongest revenue growth in over 15 years, driven by its CPUs, ASICs, and advanced packaging. In a statement, Dave Zinsner, the CFO said:

“AI-driven compute continues to strengthen, and to support expected growth this year and next across products and foundry, we are meaningfully increasing our investments in equipment, clean room space, and substrates.”

Most importantly, the management expects that the business will continue growing in the near term, helped by the unprecedented demand for its products.

The management expects that its revenue in the current quarter will jump to between $15.8 billion and $16.7 billion. This is a bigger number than the average revenue estimate of $15.1 billion. It also expects that its earnings-per-share (EPS) will be 31 cents, also higher than the expected 28 cents. 

READ MORE: Intel stock earnings could expose the fault line beneath its AI comeback

Intel’s turnaround strategy is working

These numbers mean that the company’s turnaround strategy is working, which may push analysts to upgrade it. Analysts are already highly bullish on the company, with UBS and Susquehanna having a target of $115. KeyCorp has a target of $155, while Stifel has $120. 

These developments come after the company made some major strides in the past two years. It replaced its CEO, raised capital, including from Nvidia and the US government, and made more announcements.

For example, it recently announced a large deal with Apollo Global to acquire its remaining stake in its Irish fabrication company. It also inked a major deal with Tesla and SpaceX to participate in the Terafab project. Most recently, it announced a deal that will see it manufacture chips for Apple, the second-biggest company in the world.

At the same time, the company has become a major player in the growing AI agent industry.

INTC stock price technical analysis

Intel stock chart | Source: TradingView

The daily chart reveals that the INTC stock has rebounded from a low of $89.68 to over $110 today. It has moved above the important resistance level of $100, its lowest level on June 5. 

The stock sits above the 100-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA). It also jumped above the Major S/R pivot point of the Murrey Math Lines tool.

Therefore, these results mean that the stock may continue rising in the near term as bulls target the key resistance at $150. This target coincides with the ultimate resistance of the Murrey Math Lines tool.