Intel Corporation INTC shares ended the last trading session 18.8% higher at $21.53. The jump came on an impressive volume with a higher-than-average number of shares changing hands in the session. This compares to the stock's 8.3% loss over the past four weeks.

Intel is undertaking various strategic decisions to gain a firmer footing in the expansive AI sector. The company is witnessing solid market traction in the emerging market of AI PCs. It is steadily advancing the development of Panther Lake central processing unit (CPU), which uses the 18A process node. The company expects to launch the product in the second half of 2025. The company has significant operations outside of the United States. The U.S. Government’s recent decision to pause higher tariffs for most countries for 90 days, except China, is a positive development for the company. These factors have instilled investor confidence, which probably drove the share price appreciation.

This world's largest chipmaker is expected to post break-even quarterly earnings per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -100%. Revenues are expected to be $12.28 billion, down 3.5% from the year-ago quarter.

Earnings and revenue growth expectations certainly give a good sense of the potential strength in a stock, but empirical research shows that trends in earnings estimate revisions are strongly correlated with near-term stock price movements.

For Intel, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. And a stock's price usually doesn't keep moving higher in the absence of any trend in earnings estimate revisions. So, make sure to keep an eye on INTC going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>

Intel is a member of the Zacks Semiconductor - General industry. One other stock in the same industry, Nvidia NVDA, finished the last trading session 18.7% higher at $114.33. NVDA has returned -11.5% over the past month.

For Nvidia , the consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has changed +0.3% over the past month to $0.93. This represents a change of +52.5% from what the company reported a year ago. Nvidia currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

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