Intel Corp (INTC) stock analysis
Intel Corp (INTC) clears 2 of this site's 8 mechanical value filters, 1 of 8 Buffett-style checks and 1 of 5 Lynch-style checks. At $85.49 it trades 401.2% above this site's neutral DCF value (a margin of safety of -401.2%). Its earnings quality rates Mixed and it returns −0.5% to shareholders net of dilution. Figures are as of October 23, 2026, from SEC filings and market data refreshed weekly; this is educational analysis, not investment advice.
Data as of October 23, 2026. Refreshed weekly from SEC filings and market data.
What does Intel do?
Intel designs and manufactures processors for PCs and servers, and runs a contract chip-making business (Intel Foundry) for other chip designers. It is spending heavily to catch up in advanced chip manufacturing and in AI chips.
Brands and businesses it owns
- Core
- Core Ultra
- Xeon
- Arc
- Intel Foundry
- Mobileye
What stands out about Intel?
- The share price implies more than 40% yearly growth. At $85.49, free cash flow per share would have to grow faster than 40% a year, fading to 2.5% by year 10, for this site's DCF to match the price. Change the assumptions.
- Misses 1 of the 8 value filters. It fails Price/Sales < 7 (8.06); the other 2 pass and 5 were not evaluated. See every filter.
- Strongest against peers: dividend yield. At 3.12% (peer median 0.66%) it ranks 1st of 16 among semiconductors stocks this site tracks. See the ranking.
- Weakest against peers: return on equity. At −11% (peer median 25%) it ranks 20th of 20 among semiconductors stocks this site tracks. See the ranking.
- Insiders have been buying. 1 open-market purchase was reported in SEC Form 4 filings in the last 90 days, about $124.9 million in all. See the Insider Buying Tracker.
How has Intel's share price moved?
The interactive price chart needs JavaScript.
Is Intel undervalued? The value diligence check
Every value-investing signal this site computes for this stock, gathered in one place: the same real numbers from the tools below, not a new score.
- Margin of safety (DCF) -401.2%
- Wall St. analyst rating Hold · 3.40/5 55 analysts this month: 4 strong buy, 16 buy, 33 hold, 2 sell, 0 strong sell (Finnhub). Up from 3.38 last month.
- Altman Z″-Score (bankruptcy risk) 2.92 · Safe zone
- Earnings quality (is the profit real?) Mixed · 1 flag Beneish M-score −2.59 · accruals −4.9% of assets · stock comp 4.6% of revenue · share count +3.7% a year. From the latest 10-K (year to Dec 2025) - see the Earnings Quality Screener for how each check is scored.
- Shareholder yield (cash back to owners) −0.5% net Latest fiscal year (2025): dividends 0.0% + buybacks 0.0% − stock comp 0.5%, as a share of today's market cap. Stock comp outruns what comes back in cash. Over 14 years its split-adjusted share count fell 16%. See Shareholder Yield Leaders.
- Capital needed to grow (See's test) Profit did not grow in 10 years Operating profit $18B → −$4.6B, capital needed $84B → $129B, 2016–2025 (3-year averages); return on capital now −4% before tax. Buffett's See's Candies needed $0.42 per $1 of new profit, FlightSafety $3.20, a typical grower about $5. Cyclical: the answer depends on where in its cycle the window starts and ends. See Capital-Light Compounders.
- PEG (growth at a reasonable price) n/a (no PEG reported)
- Compounder lenses (4) 0 of 4 · misses capital-light, real profit, cash back, price (n/a) Capital-light growth: not cleared (profit grew -0.3×, under 2×); Profit is real: not cleared (1 earnings-quality flag); Cash to owners: not cleared (−0.3% a year net); Fair price (PEG): cannot be measured (no PEG reported). See Compounders at a Fair Price, which also lets you move the PEG bar.
- Value trap check Clear
- Munger's Inversion Check 2 flags
- Standing vs. sector peers 1 of 6 measures above the median Compared with the 19 other semiconductors stocks this site tracks: 1 in the top third, 5 in the bottom third.
- Dividend payout sustainability 2/6 flags
How does Intel compare with its peers?
1 of 6 measure sits above the median of the 19 other semiconductors stocks tracked here, 1 in the top third and 5 in the bottom third.
- Free-cash-flow yieldhigher is cheaper · peer median 2.5% 1.2% ✕17th of 20
- Return on equityhigher is better · peer median 25% −11% ✕20th of 20
- Net marginhigher is better · peer median 26.9% −19.8% ✕20th of 20
- Revenue growthhigher is better, year on year · peer median 23.8% 7.5% ✕16th of 19
- Debt / equitylower is safer · peer median 0.29 0.58 ✕14th of 20
- Dividend yieldamong dividend payers · peer median 0.66% 3.12% ✓1st of 16
Peers are the stocks this site tracks in the same sector group, not every listed competitor. The bar runs from the weakest peer (left) to the strongest (right); the tick is the middle. Measures that don't apply to a sector (cash-flow yield for banks, debt for financials) are left out.
What would Buffett & Lynch say?
Buffett's checklist is built around durable, profitable businesses bought at sensible prices, and INTC doesn't clear enough of it yet. In its favor: INTC carries a conservative amount of debt relative to equity. Where it comes up short: INTC isn't clearing the return-on-equity bar he'd want to see right now, and its five-year average return on equity falls short too, so this isn't just a one-off dip, runs thinner pretax margins than he'd like to see, hasn't grown earnings per share fast enough over five years to impress him, doesn't cover its interest expense as comfortably as he'd want, is trading above what a conservative discounted-cash-flow estimate says it's worth right now, and trades rich relative to owner earnings, the real cash the business could pay out.
- ROE (TTM) > 11% ✕
- ROE (5yr avg) > 11% ✕
- Debt/Equity < 0.5 ✓
- Pretax margin > 15% ✕
- EPS growth (5yr) > 7% ✕
- Interest coverage > 5x ✕
- Trading below intrinsic value (DCF) ✕
- Price vs. owner earnings < 25x ✕
Lynch looked for growth stories that weren't overpriced for that growth, and INTC falls short of his bar. In its favor: INTC isn't leaning on debt to fund that growth. Where it comes up short: INTC fails his signature PEG test, he'd call this pricey for the growth on offer, is growing earnings outside the 10–25% range he considered the sustainable sweet spot, is asking investors to pay a steep multiple for that growth, and isn't generating free cash flow to match the growth story.
- PEG < 1 n/a
- EPS growth 10%-25% ✕
- Debt/Equity < 0.5 ✓
- P/E < 27 n/a
- Price/FCF < 30 ✕
- Bonus: insiders buying (90d) 1 buy, ~$124.9M
Quantitative approximations of each investor's documented approach, not endorsed by either investor or their estates - commentary, not this site's actual ranking criteria. Buffett never published a numeric checklist: only 2 of his 8 checks here trace to his own documented concepts ("owner earnings," from his 1986 shareholder letter, and "price is what you pay, value is what you get," his case against fixed P/E/P/B ceilings) - the other 6 (ROE, debt, margins, growth, interest coverage) use commonly-cited thresholds that are not numbers he himself published. The 8 hard filters below (plus the Munger check and Graham margin of safety) are this site's real, mechanical screen and are computed completely independently of the checklists above.
Berkshire Hathaway's own filing
Which of the 8 value filters does Intel pass?
- Market Cap > $25B $459.7B
- Trailing P/E < 25 n/a
- PEG Ratio < 1.5 n/a
- Price/Book < 8 5.25
- Price/Sales < 7 8.06
- EPS Growth YoY > -5% n/a
- vs 50-day MA (±12%) Not evaluated †
- vs 200-day MA (±12%) Not evaluated †
What is Intel's margin of safety?
-558% on 2026-10-07 → -401% on 2026-10-23 (5 weekly readings).
Where is Intel in its 52-week range?
What is the short interest in Intel?
167,199,908 shares short as of 2026-09-30 (FINRA settlement date). Reported twice a month, so this only changes roughly every two weeks, not daily.
What could go wrong with Intel? Munger's inversion check
"Invert, always invert." Instead of reasons to buy, these are reasons to hesitate, not a verdict, and not everything worth knowing about a business.
- Margin of safety, even in the bull case -196%
- Short interest under 5% of float 3.7%
- Passes most of the 6 fundamental filters 5/6 passed
- Price run-up backed by value, not just momentum +156% off 52wk low
- Debt/equity stable since 2016 0.38 → 0.41
Doesn't cover circle of competence, management quality, or accounting concerns: those need judgment, not data.
How much have Intel shareholders gained per year?
Not enough clean earnings history to compute this for INTC yet - a loss year in the window breaks the growth math rather than faking a number through it.
An earnings-based proxy, not a stock-price total return - it doesn't capture multiple expansion/contraction or reinvested dividends. EPS from INTC's own 10-K filings; dividend yield is the current trailing yield on today's price, from the same weekly fetch as the rest of this site.
What do Intel's 10-year financials show?
From INTC's own 10-K filings (SEC EDGAR): up to the last 10 fiscal years. Press any year's bars for the exact figures.
Frequently asked questions about Intel
What kind of company is Intel?
Intel designs and manufactures processors for PCs and servers, and runs a contract chip-making business (Intel Foundry) for other chip designers. It is spending heavily to catch up in advanced chip manufacturing and in AI chips. Brands and businesses it owns include Core, Core Ultra, Xeon, Arc, Intel Foundry and Mobileye. This site groups it with Semiconductors stocks.
Is Intel trading above or below its DCF value?
At $85.49, INTC trades 401.2% above this site's neutral DCF value of $17.06 per share, a margin of safety of −401.2%. That DCF projects free cash flow for 10 years, with growth starting at 8% and fading to 2.5%, discounted at 10%; it is one set of assumptions, not a forecast. Test your own in the Intrinsic Value Calculator.
How many of this site's 8 value filters does Intel pass?
INTC passes 2 of 8. It passes Market Cap > $25B ($459.7B) and Price/Book < 8 (5.25). It misses Price/Sales < 7 (8.06). Trailing P/E < 25, PEG Ratio < 1.5, EPS Growth YoY > -5%, vs 50-day MA (±12%) and vs 200-day MA (±12%) were not evaluated, because the moving-average checks only run on stocks that clear the fundamentals first. The 8-filter list shows every stock that passes all of them.
Are Intel's reported earnings reliable?
This site's earnings-quality check rates INTC Mixed · 1 flag. Beneish M-score −2.59 · accruals −4.9% of assets · stock comp 4.6% of revenue · share count +3.7% a year. From the latest 10-K (year to Dec 2025). Concerns: share dilution (flagged). The five checks are the Beneish M-score (manipulation risk), accruals, cash conversion, stock-based compensation and share dilution; the Earnings Quality Screener shows how each is graded.
Are Intel's insiders buying its shares?
Yes: 1 open-market insider purchase of Intel shares, worth about $124.9 million in total, was reported in SEC Form 4 filings in the 90 days up to this page's last update. Only open-market purchases count here, not option exercises or stock awards. See the Insider Buying Tracker.
When does Intel report earnings next?
Intel's next earnings report is expected on October 29, 2026 after the market closes, with analysts expecting earnings of $0.40 per share. Dates come from the Finnhub earnings calendar and can move. In its last 4 quarters it beat the estimate 4 times, by an average of +1086.3%.
Where do these numbers come from?
- Financial statements: Intel's 10-K annual report for the year ended Dec 27, 2025, filed Jan 23, 2026 (filing index). Every earlier year in the 10-year financials comes from the company's older 10-K filings, all listed on SEC EDGAR.
- Prices and market data: quotes, P/E and analyst ratings from Finnhub; daily price history and the 52-week range from Twelve Data, both refreshed weekly. Short interest comes from FINRA, reported twice a month.
- How to check a figure: click any number in the card above to see its exact source, and read the Editorial Standards for every rule behind the checks.
About this Intel Corp analysis
This page shows every value-investing check the site runs on Intel Corp (INTC) in one place: the 8 mechanical filters, the Buffett and Lynch checklists, a margin of safety from a disclosed DCF, earnings quality, shareholder yield and how it ranks against its sector peers. The numbers come from SEC filings and public market data, refreshed weekly, and the same rules apply to every stock on the stock list. See Editorial Standards for the sources and the rules, or run your own filters in the stock screener.