Morgan Stanley Upgrades Intel To Overweight, Sees CEO Transition As A Catalyst
As previously reported, Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore upgraded Intel (INTC) to Overweight from Equal Weight, citing his belief that shares "can rerate higher" given that the company has put "a more financially oriented CEO" in charge with the appointment of Robert Swan.
In his base case, he sees the stock's multiple expanding to 14x from 12x with better portfolio optimization, a mindset of optimizing free cash flow more than earnings and a higher standard of M&A accretion.
In his bull case, Moore could see Intel taking "a page from the Broadcom playbook" by undertaking a much more aggressive streamlining and divesting businesses that consume too much cash for too little return, he added. Moore raised his price target on Intel shares to $64 from $55.