WASHINGTON TRUST Co Lowers Stock Position in Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC)

WASHINGTON TRUST Co reduced its position in shares of Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC) by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 32,205 shares of the chip maker’s stock after selling 550 shares during the quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s holdings in Intel were worth $1,618,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Intel by 100,953.1% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 51,133,863 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $1,351,468,000 after purchasing an additional 51,083,262 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Intel in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,092,939,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in Intel by 4,407.3% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 16,439,207 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $814,727,000 after purchasing an additional 16,074,485 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Intel by 171.1% in the second quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 21,404,715 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $715,773,000 after purchasing an additional 13,507,774 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Intel by 29.8% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 53,342,230 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $1,409,835,000 after acquiring an additional 12,241,200 shares during the last quarter. 64.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Intel from $38.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Intel from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Intel from $39.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Raymond James cut their target price on Intel from $54.00 to $52.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Intel in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.48.

Intel Price Performance

Intel stock traded up $0.33 during trading on Thursday, reaching $44.10. The company had a trading volume of 29,884,645 shares, compared to its average volume of 44,955,461. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.01. Intel Co. has a 1-year low of $26.85 and a 1-year high of $51.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $186.45 billion, a PE ratio of 113.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.38 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.54.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The chip maker reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.27. Intel had a net margin of 3.11% and a return on equity of 1.64%. The company had revenue of $15.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.10 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Intel Co. will post 0.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Intel Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 7th were given a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 6th. Intel’s dividend payout ratio is currently 128.21%.

Insider Transactions at Intel

In related news, CEO Patrick P. Gelsinger purchased 2,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $42.74 per share, for a total transaction of $119,672.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 31,275 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,336,693.50. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Patrick P. Gelsinger acquired 2,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was purchased at an average price of $42.74 per share, for a total transaction of $119,672.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 31,275 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,336,693.50. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Patrick P. Gelsinger purchased 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $43.36 per share, with a total value of $130,080.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,475 shares in the company, valued at $1,234,676. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

About Intel

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.