Piper Jaffray Reports 2012 is set to be a Grim and Dim Year for Intel Corporation

In a recent research report, Piper Jaffray says that Intel Corporation

is going to maintain a neutral rating, despite more risks to its estimates and shares trading slightly above PT. “We believe CY12 is shaping up to be a difficult year for Intel. We expect the PC market to be weak in 1H12 due to the shortage of HDDs. We expect 2H12 to be weak ahead of the launch of Windows 8, the most significant upgrade to the operating system since Windows 3.0. Moreover, our contacts suggest that Windows 8 beta has already slipped and we believe it will be a challenging product transition. We expect margins to be under pressure as Intel is impacted by (under-absorption),” Piper Jaffray stated. Piper Jaffray maintains its Neutral rating and $23.00 PT on Intel, which closed Friday at $25.14.