New investments will help them thrive

Article Excerpt

These two chipmakers are investing heavily in new plants. While these outlays will depress their earnings in 2024, the spending also puts them in a better position to fuel their long-term growth. INTEL CORP. $43 is a buy. The company (Nasdaq symbol INTC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 4.1 billion; Market cap: $176.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 1.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.intel.com) is the world’s leading maker of computer chips: its products power 65% of all personal computers and 80% of all datacentres. In the fourth quarter of 2023, Intel’s revenue rose 9.7%, to $15.41 billion from $14.04 billion a year earlier. That revenue gain was mainly due to stronger sales of chips for personal computers, which offset lower sales to operators of datacentres. Thanks to a plan that cut Intel’s costs by $3 billion in 2023, earnings before unusual items in the quarter soared to $2.30 billion, or $0.54 a share, from $635 million,…