An Intel Bull, Bear On New Tiger Lake Processors: 'Impressive' Or Poorly Timed?

Intel Corporation INTC launched its 11th-generation Tiger Lake mobile processor Wednesday, advertising it as the best CPU for laptops.

The Intel Analysts: KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Weston Twigg maintained an Overweight rating on Intel with an $82 price target.

Rosenblatt Securities analyst Hans Mosesmann maintained a Sell rating with a $45 price target.

KeyBanc Says Intel Products Impressive: Intel's Tiger Lake mobile processors leverage 11th-generation Intel core processor technology with integrated Iris Xe graphics, Twigg said in a note. The product is impressive, underlining Intel's 10nm competitiveness, the analyst said. 

Fundamental architectural improvements enable "incredibly" high performance at low power, which is ideal for thin and light laptops, he said.

The integrated graphics suggest reasonably good gaming performance can now be achieved with thin and light notebooks, and not just on gaming laptops or desktop PCs, Twigg said. 

These likely position the company to regain some share in laptops, the analyst said. Intel now has about an 80% share in the market for laptop processors, he said. 

Intel also announced the Evo platform for ultralight laptops. The platform will consist of 11th-generation Intel Core, with impressive specifications, Twigg said.

Despite product missteps, Intel continues to crank out impressive products and is well positioned for a likely decade-long expansion in compute markets, the analyst said.

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Rosenblatt On Processor's Attributes, Launching Timing:  A bespoke circuit optimization at the core level, with a new SuperFin transistor at 10nm, allows for significant frequency improvement over the 10th-generation Ice Lake processors, Mosesmann said in a note. 

The use of new Xe graphics is another strong attribute of the Tiger Lake processors, the analyst said. 

The number of Tiger Lake designs Intel is working on is 150-plus, he said, adding that the number is modest for a player holding over 80% of the market.

Many of the designs may not launch until next year, Mosesmann said. 

A fall launch for a mobile platform is suboptimal or odd given that notebook OEMs/ODMs historically are spring-focused, the analyst said. Most of the Tiger Lake adoption is a spring 2021 event, he said. 

INTC Price Action: After moving up 2.87% to $52.25 Wednesday in reaction to the launch, Intel shares were down 2.76% at $50.81 at last check Thursday.

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An 11th-generation Intel Core processor. Courtesy photo.