Rebrand; that was the word of the day at chip stock Intel (INTC) as news of multiple rebranded chips emerged. Whether it was a line heading to China for export or a line without such tight geographic focus, “rebrand” was the phrase that paid. Unfortunately, Intel investors did not much care for the branding shuffle, and sent Intel shares sliding over 3% in Monday afternoon’s trading.
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First came word about the Granite Rapids line, which got a bit of a redesign and rebrand for the Chinese market. Montage Technology rolled out the new Jintide C6P line of processors for servers. Based on the Generation Xeon Scalable line, Montage set up a deal with Intel back in 2016 to reconfigure Intel processors, and to pack in new features as needed to be sold in the market.
In this case, that means significant new security features, reports note. In particular, the chips will include a line of data encryption algorithms as well as decryption algorithms as well as some key “surveillance features.” Given that the chips in question are likely to become part of Chinese government operations, as well as financial operations and healthcare markets, having these features built in might be a good play.
Bartlett Lake May Get Third Rebrand
Meanwhile, the Bartlett Lake line may see another rebrand itself, its third so far, according to reports. The Bartlett Lake line gave birth to the Bartlett Lake-S line, and may ultimately end up as “Bartlett Lake Hybrid.” In fact, reports note Intel is planning to incorporate both Raptor Lake and Alder Lake chips into the Bartlett Lake generation, declaring the whole match Bartlett Lake Hybrid.
Intel will be moving the Bartlett Lake-S line to the Core 2 series, reports note, and this particular line will not have the “Ultra” brand extension added on. This might sound a bit like shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic, but there is generally something to be said for having the metaphorical t’s crossed and i’s dotted.
Is Intel a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on INTC stock based on one Buy, 26 Holds and three Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 14.13% rally in its share price over the past year, the average INTC price target of $22.24 per share implies 6.63% downside risk.
