Posts Tagged ‘INTC’
Friday, January 7th, 2011
As Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) approaches its earnings report next week, analysts are taking stock of their stake in the semiconductor. Piper Jaffray downgraded the stock to neutral from overweight earlier this week, setting a 12-month price target of $21.50. This doesn’t represent much upside for the shares.
The stock was virtually flat in 2010, drastically underperforming the tech sector and the broad market, but earnings have been largely positive. According to Briefing.com, INTC has surprised to the upside in seven of the past eight reporting periods. Analysts are expecting per-share results of 53 cents for the January 13 post-market report; this would be a 33% improvement from year-ago figures.
The chart shows a consolidating stock despite strong earnings – what is an investor to do? One of the potential advantages heralded by option traders is the ability to customize a strategy beyond buy-sell-hold. There are neutral option strategies investors can use when the market (or a particular stock) is expected to move sideways. For more information on neutral strategies for a range-bound market, check out our free three-part webinar series beginning on Tuesday (1/11) after the close. (more…)
Tags: Bear Call Spread, INTC, Intel, Iron Condor, Options Strategies
Posted in blog, Bulls Vs. Bears | No Comments »
Thursday, September 9th, 2010
UBS downgraded Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) to neutral from buy yesterday, lowering its 12-month price target to $19.50 from $28. UBS officials based this move on recent meetings with PC supply chain companies in Asia. They believe PC demand is weak in the near-term, which could negatively impact demand for processors. Intel’s customers are expecting to see a price reduction of 15% or more for mainstream processors.
The UBS team does not expect this environment to impact Intel alone; Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), Varian Semiconductor (NASDAQ:VSEA), Western Digital (NYSE:WDC), and other names were downgraded at the firm. Analysts also slashed the overall PC unit growth forecast to 13.1% from 18.4% for 2010 and adjusted the 2011 growth outlook to 9.1% from 9.4%. (more…)
Tags: INTC, Intel, Long Call, Put Butterfly, Upgrades and Downgrades
Posted in blog, Bulls Vs. Bears | No Comments »
Buy, sell, hold?
The days of reckoning are upon us! So earnings season officially kicks off today with Alcoa’s (NYSE:AA) report. CSX Corporation (NYSE:CSX) and Novellus Systems (NASDAQ:NVLS) are on today’s schedule as well. As I write this at 6:00 a.m. Monday morning, futures in the S&P, DJX and Nasdaq are lower after a week’s worth of gains.
I wanted to take a couple of quick minutes today to highlight some things to remember and consider during earnings season as you make your decisions to buy, sell or hold. These things are also important to remember if you plan on employing an options strategy. Some high-profile companies that are scheduled to report this week are:
- INTC, YUM and FAST on Tuesday
- MAR on Wednesday
- AMD, JPM and GOOG on Thursday
- BAC, GCI, C and GE on Friday
There are many others reporting; the above issues are simply some of the more heavily followed. If you are wondering when a company of interest reports earnings, check out the OptionsHouse Research tab to locate the next earnings date under the “Events Calendar.” If none is posted, go to the company’s website, as some corporations may announce changes close to its report date or wait to disclose their exact earnings date.
Now that you know the relevant earnings date for your stocks, here are some factors to examine when deciding how to proceed:
(more…)
Tags: AA, AMD, BAC, buy sell hold, C, CSX, DJX, Earnings, fast, GCI, GE, GOOG, INTC, JPM, mar, NVLS, SPX, YUM
Posted in blog, What's Hot | No Comments »
The S&P 500 started trading last Friday at the same level at which it closed on Monday of the same week. The Dow and NASDAQ were also flat on the week.
Even though Alcoa (AA) officially kicks off earnings season today, there were some earnings reports last week that began to pepper in a little excitement for some investors. For instance, Monsanto (MON) disappointed many investors with reports of lackluster earnings of only $1.70 per share. Reports indicated the agriculture giant missed sales and revenue forecasts and experienced marked weakness in their Roundup brand and other glyphosate herbicide products.
They did perform well in their seed division, but missed on overall revenue expectations and confirmed EPS guidance at the low end of its previously guided range of $3.10 to $3.30. MON also retracted its long-standing goal of doubling 2007 gross profit by 2012.
Surprisingly, with all this negativity, the stock actually moved higher after the report.
How and why does this happen?
One would think if the company is not making as much as analysts expected, the stock should be selling off, right? Not always. Remember, everyone has unique expectations of a stock’s earnings performance. (more…)
Tags: AA, AMD, BAC, CSX, GCI, GOOG, INTC, JPM, MON, YUM
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Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
Intel (INTC) earnings were one of the catalysts for the July rally. Given the response of the e-mini NDX futures to the release this evening we may get déjà vu all over again. The futures are higher by almost 1%, indicating a positive start to tomorrow’s trading.
Tags: earnings season, INTC, Intel, Nasdaq futures
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Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
Are we having earnings déjà vu all over again?
Let’s review:
- Last quarter the market hit a hiccup in the end of June, sold off from a June-closing high of 944 in the S&P 500 index, down to 880 as we entered Q2 earnings.
- This quarter the market has retraced from a high of 1071 in September to 1025 last Friday.
- The VIX in July spiked from a low of 25% in June to a nervous 31% just prior to Alcoa’s release.
- This month the VIX spiked to a 29.5% on Friday after closing at a low of 23.08% in September.
Leading up to tomorrow’s earnings kick-off with Alcoa, the market rallied 1.5% yesterday after market close, and continues to replicate this again so far today.
This behavior is opposite of what we experienced 3 months ago. The market sold off immediately prior to the earnings and likely indicating an oversold condition. With the last couple of weeks trending lower, the shorts may have piled in again and created another oversold condition yet again. This time we are snapping back before we get any earnings confirmation of improving conditions. Volumes have been light and this may be a sign of a bumpier road through this earnings season.
Remember earnings begin tomorrow, however next week they begin in earnest, with heavyweight financials C, BAC, GS and GE all scheduled to announce along with tech titan INTC.
Lastly, when earnings come on expiration week, the short dated options can react dramatically to changes in the underlying price of the stocks. The flipside is the premium can decay immediately if those earnings numbers are not enough of a catalyst to move the stocks. The risk to long options is 100% of the premium paid. On short-dated options that risk can occur in a very short time. The reward is unlimited to the moves above strike plus the premium paid of the underlying stock prices.
Tags: Alcoa, BAC, C, GE, GS, INTC, S&P 500, VIX
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Friday, October 2nd, 2009
Green on the monitor screen is starting to appear: Apple, Google and Intel are all positive pushing the NDX index into the green.
Treasuries have sold off, giving up their initial gains and showing rising yields. This seems to be helping equities. Perhaps all hope is not lost.
Yesterday’s late day sell-off was possibly predicated on Goldman Sachs predicting a much worse payroll number than the initial forecast. And, guess what. They were right! This may be a case of selling in front of the number. Now that the actual number is released, the shorts are scrambling to cover their “profits” before they disappear.
Photo by iammikeb
Tags: AAPL, Apple, GOOG, Google, INTC, Intel, NDX
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