By Adam Clark

Intel shares have begun the new year with a bang, but Wall Street is still skeptical about the chip company. Susquehanna raised its target for the price, with a note of caution.

Intel shares were down 2.7% at $44.31 in premarket trading on Monday. But the stock has risen 16% over the past five trading sessions, benefiting from the company unveiling new processors and a social-media post from President Donald Trump praising Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan.

Analyst Christopher Rolland raised his price target on Intel shares to $40 from $35 in a research note on Monday, saying that call values Intel at a discount to its peers. It puts the company's enterprise value at four times his estimate for the company's sales, compared with a semiconductor industry median of 5.5 times.

"We view this multiple as appropriate given PC and DC [data center] headwinds, historical valuation metrics, and large-cap peer valuations," wrote Rolland. He reiterated a Neutral rating on the stock.

It's a skepticism shared by other commentators. Truist Securities analyst William Stein reiterated a price target of $39 and a Hold rating on Intel stock in a research note Friday. He lowered his forecast for its 2026 earnings per share to 64 cents from 79 cents following a meeting with company executives.

"During our meeting with Intel, management emphasized that it is capacity constrained, and that supply will be most constrained during Q1, challenging normal seasonality," Stein wrote.

Intel CFO David Zinsner told Barron's last year that demand for PCs had been stronger than the company expected as corporations move to the current version of Microsoft Windows, while also upgrading servers. He said that the first quarter of 2026 would be the "most challenging" time for the company in terms of making enough chips.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

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January 12, 2026 09:26 ET (14:26 GMT)

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