Intel's stock value; FTC staff backs antitrust; Edelstone acknowledges INTC might pre-announce an earning warning
It's time to check in with the two high-profile analysts having a $64-billion
squabble over the value of Intel Corp. (Nasdaq, INTC) The little
disagreement between Thomas P. Kurlak of Merrill Lynch & Co. and
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's Mark Edelstone is bigger than bragging
rights for big shots. It has to with one of the most widely held tech stocks in
the land.
mercurycenter.com
BY ADAM LASHINSKY
Mercury News Staff Writer
It's time to check in with the two high-profile analysts having a $64-billion
squabble over the value of Intel Corp. (Nasdaq, INTC)
The little disagreement between Thomas P. Kurlak of Merrill Lynch & Co. and
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's Mark Edelstone is bigger than bragging rights for
big shots. It has to with one of the most widely held tech stocks in the land.
For now, though, the quarrel is over, and Kurlak is the winner.
We last visited Kurlak and Edelstone when several weeks back, when one share of
Intel was worth about $84. Kurlak, noting overcapacity in PCs and the deleterious
impact of the sub-$1,000 computer, predicted Intel's shares were heading for ''a
new low . . . in the 60s.'' Edelstone, predicting a second-half surge from new Intel
chips, set a 12-month price target of $110.
Intel closed Tuesday at $69.25, a rebound from Monday's plunge to $68.
It's impossible to overstate the importance of Intel's stock to the tech-investing
crowd. It's one of the most widely held securities in the country. To wit, 18 million
shares changed hands Tuesday, just a bit above the norm.
So first to the man of the moment, New York-based Kurlak, who says ''things are
pretty much following the track we had been estimating in this down cycle.''
Kurlak repeats the mantra Tuesday on the chip industry he has been pushing for the
better part of a year: Overcapacity leads to lower earnings which lead to layoffs and
reduced capital spending, and, ultimately, to lower stock prices.
''For whatever reason, investors have decided to focus on reality,'' he adds. |
