Intel Still Sagging

Updated from 1:15 p.m. EST

Like a movie that keeps getting worse, Intel's(INTC) storyline took another bad turn Friday.

The world's largest chipmaker announced that its financial results for the first quarter would fall short of its previously set projections. The warning marked the second consecutive quarter that Intel will miss its guidance, and underscored the company's ongoing struggle to regain its footing in the face of fierce competition from rival Advanced Micro Devices(AMD).

Intel said it expects its top line to range from $8.7 billion to $9.1 billion in the March quarter, below the Thomson First Call consensus for $9.42 billion, and its own guidance of $9.1 billion to $9.7 billion.

The company blamed the revenue shortfall to weaker-than-expected demand and "a slight market-share loss." This loss in market share would appear to be in addition to the one percentage-point loss that Intel executives acknowledged the company suffered in the fourth quarter.

But while the bad news caused Intel's stock to lose some ground, it didn't trigger the massive selloff that accompanied its previous miss. In midday trading Friday, shares of Intel were down 1%, or 21 cents, at $20.28. Ironically, AMD's shares were faring worse, falling 77 cents, or 1.9%, to $40.56.

For some investors, Friday's warning represented a vestige of the old Intel, which was already factored into the stock's depressed price. Intel's anticipated comeback isn't slated to begin until later this year, when the company rolls out a new chip microarchitecture along with a bevy of new products.

"There's nothing Intel can really do until the second half of this year to stem material share loss," said J&W Seligman semiconductor analyst Sangeeth Peruri.

And with Intel shares trading at their 52-week low, the question facing some investors is when the right time to get into the stock will be.