Franklin Resources Inc. Lowers Holdings in Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC)

Franklin Resources Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC) by 20.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,485,063 shares of the chip maker’s stock after selling 1,668,826 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Intel were worth $325,874,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Intel during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,424,202,000. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its position in Intel by 102.6% during the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 16,074,760 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $807,757,000 after purchasing an additional 8,140,835 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Intel by 17.8% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 34,564,037 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $1,228,752,000 after purchasing an additional 5,217,549 shares during the period. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt purchased a new stake in Intel during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $251,250,000. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC raised its position in Intel by 24.7% during the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 23,369,134 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $830,773,000 after purchasing an additional 4,631,905 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 64.53% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Intel

In related news, CEO Patrick P. Gelsinger acquired 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The stock was bought at an average price of $31.42 per share, for a total transaction of $125,680.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,275 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,108,340.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Patrick P. Gelsinger acquired 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The stock was bought at an average price of $31.42 per share, for a total transaction of $125,680.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,275 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,108,340.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Patrick P. Gelsinger acquired 4,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was bought at an average price of $30.29 per share, with a total value of $124,189.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 39,375 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,192,668.75. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on INTC. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on Intel from $34.00 to $30.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 9th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Intel from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 12th. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Intel from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 26th. Wedbush reduced their price objective on Intel from $40.00 to $32.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on Intel from $47.50 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 15th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-three have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Intel has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.58.

Intel Trading Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ INTC traded up $0.22 on Wednesday, reaching $31.96. The stock had a trading volume of 8,923,207 shares, compared to its average volume of 47,674,063. Intel Co. has a 12-month low of $26.85 and a 12-month high of $51.28. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $36.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $136.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.21, a P/E/G ratio of 15.43 and a beta of 1.09.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The chip maker reported ($0.06) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by ($0.03). Intel had a return on equity of 2.19% and a net margin of 7.36%. The company had revenue of $12.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.76 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Intel Co. will post 0.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Intel Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be issued a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 6th. Intel’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.08%.

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.