It's almost ridiculous to attempt to make the bullish case for Intel in such a concise format. The company has so much going for it that something twenty times the length wouldn't do Intel justice. When doing my research for this piece by searching the Motley Fool, a search of the word "Intel" gave me 463 hits. 463 mentions in our little corner of cyber-investing space -- and that's not counting the message boards.

Intel dominates its business and is a virtual cash machine. Period. But don't just take just my word for it, let me highlight some of the better comments on Intel that I found on the Fool.

With $2 billion going into research and development annually, equal to the revenues of its largest (and chronically lagging) competitor -- ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: AMD)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: AMD)") end if %> -- Intel has the size and power to release newer, faster products and to cut prices at will. As Jim Surowiecki pointed out in his recent article concerning the new Pentium II, "Intel has stayed ahead of the curve. Or, rather, once again Intel has determined the shape of the curve."

Tom Gardner said of Intel in his excellent May 29 Fool Portfolio update concerning his MoneyHeavy Portfolio (in which Intel is a member), "They are in an extraordinary competitive position; they are supported by a first-class management team; and they have done a bang-up job of putting themselves in front of the consumer."

Sounds like a rousing endorsement to me. With $8 billion in cash and short-term investments sitting on an essentially debt-free balance sheet, it isn't hard to understand why cash-loving investors flock to Intel.

With cash flow from operations of over $2.2 billion a quarter, Intel has more than enough dough rolling in to enhance shareholder value. One of the most exciting things the company is doing is actively buying back shares of its stock. In the first quarter conference call, Intel said that it had bought back 7.7 million shares over the past three months and had authorized a total repurchase of 140 million shares -- or roughly 15% of the outstanding shares.

The company is also investing in technology companies that are researching new "killer applications" in the hopes of driving future processor demand higher and higher. As Tom Gardner wrote, "Speeding up the PC and multimedia applications can't ever happen enough." I agree. As does Randy Befumo (TMF Templr) when he said of Intel in his May 30 Fool Plate Special, "Unless investors believe the PC is going the way of the buggy whip, they might want to consider today and possibly next week a nice little shopping opportunity."

Jeff Fischer (TMF Jeff) reminded us in the June 13 Fool Portfolio update that Intel's forward PE ratio is significantly lower than its five-year expected annual growth rate, making it one of the few dominating companies with such strong margins to trade at an implied discount to its growth rate. Below is a chart I stole from the update:

             Earnings       P/E on     Est. 5 yr. 
StockEst.    (mo./yr.)      Est.Ann.   Growth Rate
Intel        9.87  (12/98)    14           20%

With an impenetrable competitive position, beautiful balance sheet, strong cash flow and earnings growth, Intel is hitting on all cylinders and is well poised to continue to take advantage of the computer revolution that we are experiencing. But like I said earlier, don't just take my word for it.

-- Paul Larson ([email protected])

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