We know that chip stock Intel (INTC) has been hemorrhaging employees for the last several months now, on its way to cutting loose somewhere around 20% of its overall staff. But along the way, Intel is also losing some folks it may not have originally planned to lose. These unexpected departures are hitting Intel particularly hard, and investors do not like what they see. Intel shares were down nearly 2.5% in Friday afternoon’s trading.
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With new CEO Lip-Bu Tan making a wide range of changes, some of Intel’s biggest names have decided to simply retire and get out of the way altogether. Ryan Russell and Kaizad Mistry, both vice presidents in the technology development group, have decided to retire. Corporate vice president of the Design Technology Platform organization Gary Patton also decided the time was ripe to seek greener pastures in retirement, noted a Reuters report.
Intel, interestingly, would not comment about the retirements when asked in that same report. But with processes emerging and being broken apart in a matter of weeks, it is clear there is a lot of change going on at Intel right now. That may be the kind of change that prompts some to believe it is better to abandon ship than go down with it.
It Got Worse
As if those retirements were not enough, there was one more unexpected departure to follow. This one did not happen as a result of a retirement, though. Rather, this one came about because someone was offered a better job elsewhere. Gang Duan, Inventor of the Year for 2024 at Intel, and a specialist in chip packaging, is now executive vice president at Samsung. (SSNLF)
Interestingly, one of the things Duan was known for was using glass as a means to package semiconductors, which provides several key advantages including greater durability and thermal stability. But given that Intel recently decided to get out of glass substrates altogether, Duan may have decided that it was a good time to depart.
Is Intel a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on INTC stock based on one Buy, 25 Holds and three Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 7.82% loss in its share price over the past year, the average INTC price target of $22.25 per share implies 15.4% upside potential.
