Here’s what Wall Street is saying about Intel ahead of earnings

Intel (INTC) is scheduled to report results of its fiscal first quarter after the market close on April 23 with a conference call scheduled for 5:00 pm ET. What to watch for:

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GUIDANCE: Along with its last report, Intel guided for Q1 adjusted earnings per share of 0c on revenue of $11.7B-$12.7B. At the time, analysts were expecting the company to report Q1 EPS of 5c on revenue of $12.55B, but those figures have since fallen to 1c and $12.43B, respectively.

HSBC UPGRADE: Earlier this week, HSBC analyst Frank Lee upgraded Intel to Buy from Hold with a price target of $95, up from $50. While foundry deals have driven a 60% rally in the shares, Intel’s “significant” server processor momentum is not priced into the stock, the analyst told investors in a research note. HSBC believes server CPU upside is “more than enough” for Intel’s earnings growth as foundry uncertainty remains despite the improving sentiment. Intel has “game-changing server CPU potential” starting in Q2, contends the firm. It sees the company’s server CPU shipment growth and price hikes leading to significant upside earnings potential.

BNP UPGRADE: BNP Paribas also upgraded Intel this week, in this case to Neutral from Underperform with a $60 price target. Better 14A datapoints have raised expectations for 14A success while the takeoff off agentic AI is driving stronger demand for Intel’s server chips, the analyst told investors.

PT INCREASES: Outside of upgrades, multiple analysts in recent weeks have increased their price targets on Intel ahead of its quarterly print. Cantor Fitzgerald raised the firm’s price target on Intel to $65 from $60 with a Neutral rating on the shares, saying that despite expectations for PC shipments to decline in CY26, Intel Products revenue is expected to grow due to strong pricing tailwinds, especially in server CPUs, and improving supply dynamics through the year. Meanwhile, Stifel analyst Ruben Roy raised the firm’s target to $65 from $42, saying that the firm’s processor coverage is “at distinctly different points on the AI infrastructure adoption curve,” but shares a common macro backdrop as compute demand.

Additionally, Bernstein raised the firm’s price target on Intel to $60 from $36 and kept a Market Perform rating on the shares. The firm once again ups its server assumptions and raises gross margin estimates, and lower NCI given the Ireland fab repurchase, but also drops its PC assumptions. Overall, Bernstein is below consensus on client and above on DC with higher gross margins; its revenue forecasts are below consensus on those weaker PCs but the firm models EPS above. Other firms that raised their price targets on Intel in recent weeks include Susquehanna, Northland, Jefferies, and Melius Research.

TESLA/14A PROCESS: During the company’s quarterly conference call on Wednesday, Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said that the car maker plans to use Intel’s 14A process, “which is state-of-the-art and in fact, not yet totally complete.” “Given that by the time Terafab scales up, 14A will be probably fairly mature or ready for prime time, 14A seems like the right move,” Musk said. “We have a great relationship with Intel. A lot of respect for the CEO, the CTO and the new team there. We think it’s going to be a great partnership.”

The comments come a couple weeks after Intel said in a social media post that it is joining the Terafab project with SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla to “help refactor silicon fab technology.” ” Our ability to design, fabricate, and package ultra-high-performance chips at scale will help accelerate Terafab’s aim to produce 1 TW/year of compute to power future advances in AI and robotics,” Intel said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.