Intel to Launch Note Offering and Aggressively Repurchase Shares

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) has filed its automatic shelf registration statement with the Securities & Exchange Commission. While these are normally just open shelf filings, Intel has already added another filing that will generate a note or bond offering by the chip and processing giant.

Terms have not been set, but the second filing shows that a bond and/or note offering will be made with three different maturities, and they are all listed as senior notes. Intel also included in this filing that it intends to use the net proceeds from the offering “for general corporate purposes and to repurchase shares of its common stock under the company’s existing share repurchase authorization.” The company also showed that J.P. Morgan Securities and Merrill Lynch will be the joint book-running managers for the offering.

What matters here is that Intel is specifying the use for buybacks rather than dividends. Intel already has a high yield at 4.6%, now that its shares have been hit. Intel said in its third-quarter results that it generated approximately $5.1 billion in cash from operations, paid dividends of $1.1 billion and used $1.2 billion to repurchase stock.

If you look at Intel’s share buyback history, you will see that Intel has used its capital to retire billions and billions of dollars worth of stock.

So here is why this matters. Intel’s stock price closed at $19.54 on Monday and the 52-week range is $19.23 to $29.27. It is up to you whether you agree with the company, but Intel is suggesting that its shares are cheap and that it is willing to use some leverage to buy back stock now that it has lost one-third of its market value from the recent peak.

JON C. OGG