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Wall Street split Friday on Intel ‘s ( INTC ) shrouded PC future. At least one analyst hedged on Intel getting an Apple ( AAPL ) iPhone 7 chip win, as the No. 1 chipmaker prepares to unveil Q1 earnings after the close Tuesday. Intel stock was down a fraction in afternoon trading on the stock market today , near 32. Shares tanked 18% in January and early February on reports of more PC weakness , hitting a year-low 28.22 on Feb. 11. Since then, Intel stock has recovered 13%. For Q1, Intel is expected to report $13.86 billion in sales and 48 cents earnings per share, up a respective 8.5% and 17% from Q1 2015, per the consensus of 45 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Three months ago, Intel guided to $14 billion in sales, plus or minus $500 million. Pacific Crest analyst Michael McConnell and S&P Global Market Intelligence analyst Angelo Zino expect Intel to miss the midpoint of its guidance. And McConnell sees Intel cutting its full-year guidance. In January, Intel guided to mid- to high-single-digit sales growth over its $55.36 billion in 2015 sales. Zino notes, “The PC landscape appears to be softer than originally anticipated.” MKM analyst Ian Ing acknowledged Intel’s strong data center sales (about 30% of revenue) but expects Intel’s PC weakness “(to) more than offset strength in cloud computing.” He expects a flat Q2 for PC sales following a subseasonal Q1. But Zino sees Intel’s year-over-year PC losses becoming less pronounced exiting 2016, despite a likely challenging first half. Industry trackers IDC and Gartner predicted 11.5% and 9.6% PC shipment declines in Q1. “We see an aging PC landscape (over 600 million devices more than five years old), market share gains and new innovative devices supporting CCG (client computing group) revenue as the year progress,” Zino wrote in a research report. He reiterated his 39 price target on Intel stock. McConnell has a 35 price target and overweight rating on Intel stock. Ing maintained his buy rating but cut his price target to 38 from 40 on Intel stock. Intel has striven to get its chips inside the iPhone, and rumors recently circulated that Apple might tap the No. 1 chipmaker to source some of its iPhone 7 modems . Qualcomm ( QCOM ) has supplied the iPhone modem in the past four flagship smartphones. But Ing doubts that Apple would risk implementing an Intel chip. Teardowns show that Intel last supplied an iPhone chip in the 2008 iPhone 3G. “We retain some skepticism that Apple would add risk to their global launches,” he wrote in a report. Scalper1 News
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