After several years of underperformance and negative revisions, Intel has attracted renewed support from Wall Street analysts. Over the past quarter, at least four major brokerage firms have raised their ratings on the stock, citing last year’s 65% rally and improving execution in the company’s foundry and data center segments. One notable upgrade came from a leading Bay Area bank, which lifted its recommendation to Buy and increased its 12-month target by 25%, emphasizing Intel’s narrowing technology gap with rival chipmakers and the potential for higher-margin custom AI silicon contracts.

Intel is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results on January 22, with consensus forecasts calling for revenue of $13.37 billion and earnings per share of $0.08. While top-line comparisons will reflect an expected year-over-year decline of roughly 5%, investors will focus on guidance for the March quarter and full-year 2026. Management has signaled that ongoing cost-structure improvements and plant utilization gains should support modest sequential revenue growth and a mid-60% gross margin run rate, compared with approximately 62% in Q3 2025.

Building on recent leadership changes and the commercial launch of Core Ultra Series 3 processors on Intel’s advanced 18A process node, the company projects improved free cash flow generation of $12 billion to $15 billion in 2026, up from $8 billion in 2025. The balance sheet has strengthened, with net debt reduced by nearly $10 billion over the past year. Intel also expects accelerating momentum in its foundry services business, driven by wins to produce custom AI accelerators for major cloud providers, which could represent up to $3 billion in incremental annualized revenue by late 2026.