Intel surges as job-cut plans meet with Wall Street's approval

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Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) shares surged more than 10% Friday as investors got behind the semiconductor following its plans to shed jobs and better-than-expected earnings report.

Late Thursday, Intel (INTC) Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger said on a conference that the company would be "taking aggressive actions to reduce costs" in response to what he called "the current environment" affecting much of the tech sector. Gelsinger then went into executive-speak by saying that the company's efforts will include "steps to optimize our headcount."

Intel (INTC) didn't disclose any specific job-cut numbers.

Along with Gelsinger's comments, Intel (INTC) reported a third-quarter profit of 59 cents a share, excluding one-time items, on revenue of $15.3B. Analysts had earlier forecast that Intel (INTC) would earn 33 cents a share on $15.3B in revenue.

Going forward, Intel (INTC) sees some issues ahead, as it expects to earn 20 cents a share, excluding one-time items, on revenue of between $14B and $15B for its fourth quarter. The company also took down its full-year revenue estimate to a range of $63B to $64B, from an earlier forecast of $65B to $68B in sales.

At Barclays, analyst Blayne Curtis upgraded Intel's (INTC) stock to equal weight from underweight. Curtis said that there is "a bottom in sight" for the PC, market, which should help Intel's (INTC) revenue improve in 2023.

However, Curtis also said, "the ship is far from righted" and would look for Intel (INTC) to report more positive business from its data center and foundry strategies before declaring the company back on track.

Wall Street analysts currently have a consensus hold rating on Intel's (INTC) stock, while Seeking Alpha authors give the stock a rating of buy. Seeking Alpha's quant system, which historically outperforms the stock market, gives Intel's (INTC) shares a hold rating.