Intel Corporation (INTC.US) announced its performance soon, receiving a rating upgrade from HSBC to "Hold".

HSBC Bank has upgraded its rating on Intel Corporation (INTC.US) from "reduce" to "hold" while maintaining a target price of $20. Intel Corporation is scheduled to announce its financial performance for the fourth quarter of 2024 on January 30. The market generally expects adjusted earnings per share of $0.12 and revenue of $13.83 billion. HSBC believes that Intel Corporation will report performance in line with market expectations. Analysts Frank Lee and Pulkit Aggarwal from HSBC Bank stated in an investor report on Tuesday: "Since Intel Corporation announced its second quarter performance on August 2, 2024, the stock has adjusted by about 26%. We believe that the $20 target has been reached and the current pricing is reasonable. We believe that the market has already absorbed the recent uncertainties related to the execution of the IDM 2.0 strategy and the senior management turnover with CEO Pat Gelsinger resigning in December 2024." Lee said: "As we enter the first quarter of 2025, we anticipate some decline in revenue. Our revenue estimate is $12.6 billion, which implies a 9% decrease from the previous quarter, while the market generally expects a 6% decrease. We believe this may be due to lower-than-expected performance in the data center segment. We expect this could put pressure on the gross margin, so our expectation for a first-quarter gross margin of 38.5% is still below the market consensus of 39.1%." HSBC also noted that Intel Corporation has not provided a clear path to achieve its foundry goals. Lee added: "Although we acknowledge that the worst seems to be over for Intel Corporation and all the negative factors in the past few months seem to be priced in, we believe it is still too early to have a clear view on whether the execution of this plan will bring about a full recovery in the business."