With the war in Iraq presumably going to take longer than expected, analysts begin to cut their expectations on high-tech companies, as we predicted on Monday (see this news-story).

Lehman Brothers says that taking some profits in Intel may be the right course of action heading into earnings for short-term investors; although firm believes that the first quarter results are in-line with expectations, June quarter revenue guidance is likely to be down 2-3% quarter on quarter at the midpoint versus current consensus of down 0.6%.

The firm also notes that EPS expectations are flat quarter on quarter for June versus the +$0.01 earlier in the quarter, but this may also be too high.

Lehman maintains Overweight rating for INTC and $24 price target, according to In Play. Note that Intel Corporation may improve its ASPs and margins as a result of rolling-out the new Celeron processors 2.30 and 2.40GHz with higher-price (see this news-story), so, their financial results for the next quarter may be a bit better that is it expected now. Of course, everything will depend on the overall market situation.