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BMO Capital analyst Ambrish Srivastava upgraded Intel to Outperform from Market Perform with a price target of $70, up from $50.

The "richness of experience" that Pat Gelsinger brings from his prior tenure at Intel (INTC), as well as his experience running VMware (VMW), makes him the right person who can address the "daunting, but not insurmountable challenges" that Intel faces, Srivastava tells investors in a research note. Given the "series of disappointments" from Intel, even a "few incremental right steps ought to serve as a catalyst for shares," says the analyst. Srivastava now assumes that Intel shares "start to shake off the big discount" to the S&P 500.

The analyst coupled the upgrade with a downgrade of AMD (AMD) to Underperform.