Updated 31 October 2026. Intel (INTC) closed Friday 30 October at $65.76, down $26.31 or 28.58 percent, on volume of 455.5 million shares, and traded at $64.88 after hours (StockAnalysis). Benzinga and Ynet described it as Intel’s worst session since 1974. The trigger was a fourth-quarter guide of $15-$16 billion in revenue and 25 cents of adjusted EPS, against about $17.1 billion and 43 cents expected. Verdict: the stock is now below the lowest analyst target on the Street, and the week ahead tests whether Friday was capitulation or the start of a re-rating. Reference levels: $58 below, $79 above.
Key facts
- Price: INTC closed at $65.76 on 30 October after a $63.20-$68.77 range, from $92.07 on Thursday; after hours it was $64.88 (StockAnalysis).
- Q3 beat: revenue rose about 21 percent to $16.5 billion and adjusted EPS was 52 cents against about 40 cents expected; Data Center and AI revenue rose nearly 80 percent to $7.3 billion (Intel results via Investing.com).
- Q4 guide: revenue of $15.0-$16.0 billion, a non-GAAP gross margin of 38.0 percent (down from 44.1 percent) and EPS of 25 cents; client computing is expected to fall more than 20 percent sequentially (Investing.com).
- Fab 28: the incident at Intel’s Israel fab is expected to cut about $300 million from fourth-quarter revenue and about 200 basis points from gross margin (Investing.com, TIKR). Ynet reported the explosion killed two people.
- Cash flow: management called 2027 an investment year and said it does not expect positive free cash flow as it ramps Intel 18A and prepares 14A (Investing.com, TIKR).
- PCs: CFO David Zinsner said he sees “the PC slowdown continuing at least through the first half of next year”; Intel blamed high memory prices for the weakness (TIKR, Investing.com).
- Targets: the lowest analyst target is $70, the median $100 and the average $107.21 across 48 analysts, with a Hold consensus (StockAnalysis).
Six target cuts in one day
Bank of America’s Vivek Arya cut Intel to Neutral from Buy and lowered his price objective to $100 from $145, citing sharp PC shipment declines and supply constraints (Tech Insider, Benzinga). StockAnalysis logged further cuts on Friday: Northland’s Gus Richard to $93 from $120 (Buy), Barclays’ Thomas O’Malley to $75 from $100, TD Cowen’s Joshua Buchalter to $75 from $95, Freedom Capital Markets’ Egor Tolmachev to $90 from $100 with a downgrade to Hold, and Evercore ISI’s Mark Lipacis to $131 from $133 (Buy). Goldman Sachs’ James Schneider, Neutral with a $100 target, had said before the open that he expected the stock to trade “meaningfully lower” (TipRanks).
Even the lowest target, $70, sits above Friday’s close. That says less about upside than about how far the price moved in one session: analysts set their new numbers against a stock that had been above $90 the day before.
Why the beat did not matter
Intel beat on the quarter it reported and missed badly on the quarter ahead. The guide midpoint gives back about $1 billion of revenue sequentially, and the margin drop of more than 600 basis points undoes most of the year’s improvement. Benchmark’s Cody Acree summed up the reaction as Intel being “still PC dependent” (TIKR). The data center business is growing, but chief executive Lip-Bu Tan said substrate shortages limited server shipments, and management expects wafer and substrate constraints to persist into the first half of 2027 (TIKR, Investing.com).
Before the report, Intel shares were up about 150 percent this year (Ynet). TIKR calculates the stock traded at about 53 times forward earnings at Thursday’s close and about 40 times after the drop – still well above the 10-18 times range of 2014-2022.
The selloff spread across the sector. TIKR reported Dell down 12 percent, HP 10 percent, AMD 9 percent and Micron 6 percent on the day, and Benzinga put the chip sector’s lost market value at about $1 trillion. Our Intel page from Friday covers the session itself, and our Dell page has the PC read-through.
The week ahead
Tuesday 3 November – AMD results after the close, with a call at 5 pm ET (AMD). AMD is Intel’s main rival in both PCs and servers, so its client guide is the first independent check on Intel’s PC warning, and every Xeon Intel cannot ship is a server sale AMD can try to win (see our AMD page). Friday 6 November brings the October jobs report. The memory side of the story is covered on our Micron week-ahead page.
Intel stock week ahead: bull, base and bear
| Scenario | INTC | What has to happen | Anchor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bear | $58 | More downgrades follow, AMD’s results confirm a deep PC decline, and holders who rode the 150 percent rally keep selling. | About 12 percent below Friday’s $65.76 close and about 8 percent below Friday’s $63.20 low. |
| Base | $63-$72 | The stock consolidates after a record-volume session while analysts finish resetting models. | Friday’s $63.20 low up to the $72.44 after-hours price on Thursday night (Investing.com). |
| Bull | $79 | AMD reports firm server demand and a PC outlook less bleak than Intel’s, and buyers treat Friday as an overreaction to one quarter’s guide. | Retraces half of Friday’s $26.31 drop; still below the $93-$100 cluster of new analyst targets. |
The bear case sits below Friday’s close. Analyst targets, all of them above the current price, are listed separately above. These are reference levels measured from the verified close, not forecasts.
What to watch
- $63.20: Friday’s low. A close below it would show no buyers stepped in after the first shock.
- AMD’s client guide on 3 November: the cleanest read on whether the PC slowdown is industry-wide.
- Further rating changes: six firms cut targets on Friday; more notes usually follow over the next week.
- Fab 28 updates: how long the Israel plant stays down beyond the roughly two weeks reported so far (Tech Insider).
Quick take: Intel closed at $65.76 on Friday, down 28.58 percent, after guiding fourth-quarter revenue to $15-$16 billion and EPS to 25 cents, well below expectations, and warning of no positive free cash flow in 2027. Bank of America downgraded it and at least five other firms cut targets. Expect $63-$72 this week; $58 if AMD confirms the PC slump, $79 if it does not.
FAQ
What is Intel’s stock price today?
Intel closed at $65.76 on Friday 30 October 2026, down 28.58 percent, and traded at $64.88 after hours (StockAnalysis).
Why did Intel stock drop?
Intel guided fourth-quarter revenue to $15-$16 billion and adjusted EPS to 25 cents, against about $17.1 billion and 43 cents expected, citing a PC slowdown driven by high memory prices and an incident at its Israel fab. It also said it does not expect positive free cash flow in 2027.
Was it Intel’s worst day ever?
Benzinga and Ynet described it as Intel’s worst session since 1974. On 2 August 2024, Intel fell about 26 percent.
What did Intel report for the third quarter?
Revenue of $16.5 billion, up about 21 percent, and adjusted EPS of 52 cents against about 40 cents expected, with Data Center and AI revenue of $7.3 billion.
What is the Intel stock price target?
The average analyst target is $107.21 and the median $100, with a low of $70 and a high of $165 across 48 analysts (StockAnalysis). Bank of America cut its target to $100 from $145.
What happened at Intel’s Fab 28?
An incident at the Israel fab is expected to reduce fourth-quarter revenue by about $300 million and gross margin by about 200 basis points, according to Intel’s guidance. Ynet reported that the explosion killed two people.
When does AMD report?
Tuesday 3 November 2026, after the market close, with a call at 5 pm ET (AMD).
Sources: StockAnalysis (30 October close, range, volume, after-hours price, analyst targets and rating changes); Intel Q3 2026 results and slides via Investing.com (results, guidance, Fab 28 impact, 2027 cash flow, after-hours move on 29 October); TIKR (Zinsner and Acree quotes, Tan comments, sector moves, valuation); Ynet (consensus estimates, explosion, year-to-date gain); Tech Insider and Benzinga (Bank of America downgrade, Fab 28 duration); TipRanks (Goldman Sachs comment); AMD investor relations (results date).
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Stock prices are volatile. Do your own research and consult a licensed financial adviser before making investment decisions.