Intel (INTC)

Not a fan. This is a tech company that is in denial of their growth prospects. They are the gorilla of market share but have nowhere to go because there is no real growth in core PCs.

Street was negative on this because they largely don’t have leverage to the mobile market. They missed this completely. Hands-down they are the best chip maker out there. Lost direction when they missed the mobile market. Thinks the stock will continue to work because they will gain market share over time. If they can take 1% of market share per year over the next several years, it is a positive trajectory for them. It is now starting to gain leverage to the mobile market and he likes that the chips are the best chips available. His bias is positive on the stock.

Growth has been very sluggish and is being replaced by tablets, etc. Have a new chip coming out and that may be a catalyst. They have 80%+ share and it’s difficult for them to grow in an environment where the economy has been slow and the market for PCs and laptops has been really negative.

It is controversial but he would buy it today. Thinks they will regain market share. They ARE the PC business. There is not a lot of market share to lose in that area. At some point PC sales will stabilize. They have a rich dividend. Don’t count them out yet. There are better places to be, but he would hold it.

His 3 picks today are all technology related. He is seeing earnings and revenue growth over time and a global move towards more mobile telephony technology. This company is trading at around 12X earnings with a 3.96 % yield. Spends $14 billion a year in research and development. Expecting they will come out with an innovative solution in new chips.

He is pretty positive on the entire technology space, specifically in the US. This one has great dividends so you are paid to wait. Had a bit of a rough go over the last little while because of competition. They were a little bit late moving into the mobile space. They plow a ton of money back into R&D and they are the dominant player. Good price.

They have wind in their face because their business was the PC business and they got left behind in the evolution to tablets. With their size and resources, they have an opportunity to catch up. They are doing some impressive things right now. There are a lot of unknowns but there is an opportunity that is not fully priced in. Would buy when there is better certainty.

Model prices $35.52, a 56.5% upside. Yield of about 4%.

Advanced Micro (AMD-N) versus Intel (INTC-Q)? Intel is obviously the gorilla in this space with their 10%-15% marginal share. If she had to choose between the 2, she would pick Intel because they have much more 80+ share. They will participate more if we see the PC market start to improve. Would wait as there is not a rush to buy anything, especially with the general volatility in the market. With rising rates, the whole market could pull back.

Big dividend. This is one of the sectors that will return the most capital back to investors. This one will and will benefit from the trend into mobile devices. Until earnings come out, there is a lot of speculation around this stock. The recent 4% pull back makes it a decent time to enter the stock. He wants to see the numbers before buying.

Great US technology giant. There is talk about Intel TV which could be coming in the future. Good valuation. Being a chip manufacturer, they have less control of their pricing.

(Market Call Minute.) Has a real headwind. PC demand is falling faster than people thought. Thinks they are scrambling to become a supplier to tablets. Doesn’t have a leadership position at this time.

This would be an entry point for a 9-15 month holding period. Company has suffered because it does not have leverage to the mobile market. We are clearly seeing a transition from desktop to the mobile and that is going to play out over a longer period of time. This company is very good at “catching up”. Still one of the best chipmakers that is out there. Have recently launched a mobile and have a new product Haswell for ultra books. Expectations are fairly low for them but looking at the company longer-term, they can overcome that and you are getting paid to be in the stock.

A report on PC sales indicated they were the worst since 1994. Technology stocks normally do very well from October through until January but then take a bit of a hiatus. Then in the middle of April, stocks like this tend to pick up again. Chart shows this is forming a nice pattern and starting to trend higher, above its 22 moving average and outperforming the S&P 500. Good opportunity.

(A Past Pick. April 5/12. Down 20.44%.) Got stopped out of this last summer.