Intel Corporation's (NASDAQ:INTC) chief engineering officer Murthy Renduchintala will be stepping down, effective August 3, just a few days after the company announced delays in the release of its 7-nanometer manufacturing process. Renduchintala came to the company from Qualcomm (QCOM) in 2015 and was at one point considered as a CEO candidate following Brian Krzanich's resignation in 2018. INTC is off 0.4% to trade at $49.35 at last check.
Last week's announcement, paired with a second-quarter earnings miss sent Intel stock plummeting back toward its late-March lows, tacking on its biggest one-day drop since March 16. Not only that, the stock breached recent support at its 200-day moving average, and now suffers a year-to-date deficit of nearly 18%.
Analysts have already lost interest in the blue chip. Just seven call it a "strong buy," while 12 say "hold," and six say "strong sell." The 12-month consensus target price of $57.05, meanwhile, is a 15.7% premium to last night's close.
Options bulls still seem to be on board, though. INTC's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 1.91 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) stands higher than 90% of readings from the past 12 months. Adding to this, the equity's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.55 sits below all other annual readings, suggesting short-term options players haven't been more call-biased.