Think Intel's Rally Is Over? It Might Cost You an Easy 20%

Intel stock is hitting new 52-week highs Friday morning, but analysts contend even more gains could be on the way.

Author:: Bret Kenwell
Publish date:: Oct 27, 2017 10:51 AM EDT

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Intel stock is hitting new 52-week highs Friday morning, but analysts contend even more gains could be on the way.

Analysts make a good case for this tech stock's next move higher.

Shares of Intel (INTC) - Get Report have been on fire, up almost 20% over the past two months. But that fire is getting even hotter Friday, with Intel stock up 3.05%, to $44.40 at the close.

The company beat on earnings per share and revenue estimates. But that wouldn't be enough to spark a rally to new 52-week highs. How about

Intel management boosting

its full-year outlook for both earnings and revenue? Yep, that will do.

Despite the lofty rally over the past few months, Intel stock continues to push higher. According to some, though, that push is only getting started.

Roth Capital's Suji Desilva is now looking for Intel to rally to $50 instead of $43. He maintains his buy rating and views Intel's push into high-growth markets -- like the cloud data center, automotive and Internet of Things -- being a big driver going forward.

KeyBanc and Wells Fargo analysts also raised their price targets to $50. The targets imply about 20% upside from Thursday's close. Should Intel stock climb to $50, it will be up more than 35% from where it started at the beginning of the year and up almost 50% from its summer lows.

They're not the only ones that see upside, though. Bank of America/Merrill Lynch analyst Vivek Arya is also looking for Intel's high-growth drivers to push its stock higher. These strong segments should offset the weakness Intel is experiencing in the PC market, the analyst said, raising his price target to $49 from $42.

Loop Capital's Betsy Van Hees also raised her price target to $49, bumping it from $45 following Intel's third-quarter results. Deutsche Bank analyst Ross Seymore raised his price target to $45 from $43 and maintained his buy rating, saying upside should continue.

There was one skeptic, though, if you can even call them that. SunTrust's William Stein moved his price target to $43 from $39 -- which is now below the stock's current price. He maintains his hold rating, saying the stock's recent rally is justified given the good results, but a further rally is not justified.

Intel's earnings results follow the not-so-well-received report from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) - Get Report and come ahead of Nvidia's (NVDA) - Get Report earnings report in mid-November. Intel also released its quarterly results on the same day as Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) - Get Report , Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) - Get Report and Microsoft (MSFT) - Get Report . All four stocks are powering higher Friday, driving the PowerShares Nasdaq ETF (QQQ) - Get Report to new 52-week and all-time highs.