Technology

AMD Unable To Escape Earlier Shadow of Intel on Earnings

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) has now released its first quarter earnings results. Maybe that should read “losses” rather than earnings, as the report still looks soft against estimates — and revenue guidance is not favorable either.

AMD’s non-GAAP operating net loss was $73 million, or -$0.09 per share, on revenue of $1.03 billion. The consensus estimates for the first quarter were -$0.05 in EPS and $1.05 billion in revenue. The same period in the previous year had $0.02 in EPS and $1.40 billion in revenue.

AMD may have Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) and its round of guidance since the start of the year to thank in part for lower expectations. Analysts were expecting a one-cent loss per share less than 90 days ago, but earlier this year that consensus estimate drifted lower to a loss of -$0.05 per share. Despite rising after the earnings report earlier this week after the report was not as bad as feared and despite a more positive analyst view, Intel shares remain down over 8% so far in 2015.

AMD went on to say that its Computing and Graphics segment revenue decreased 20% sequentially and 38% from a year ago. Its Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment revenue decreased 14% sequentially and 7% from a year ago.

The company did release some general guidance for the coming quarter, and this is hurting worse than the lagging first quarter numbers. AMD sees revenues falling by 3% sequentially, plus or minus 3 percent. This implies that revenues would be roughly $999 million at the mid-point of -3%, or as low as $970 million or as much as $1.03 billion. AMD’s consensus analyst estimates for the quarter ahead are -$0.01 EPS and $1.13 billion in revenues. For a year over year comparison, AMD had a small gain of $0.02 EPS and $1.44 billion in revenues for the second quarter of 2014.

Dr. Lisa Su, AMD’s president and CEO, said in her official quote on the quarterly report:

Building great products, driving deeper customer relationships and simplifying our business remain the right long-term steps to strengthen AMD and improve our financial performance. Under the backdrop of a challenging PC environment, we are focused on improving our near-term financial results and delivering a stronger second half of the year based on completing our work to rebalance channel inventories and shipping strong new products.

AMD further said in the ‘other corporate events’ in its release:

As a part of the strategy to simplify and sharpen the company’s investment focus, AMD is exiting the dense server systems business, formerly SeaMicro, effective immediately.

AMD shares closed up 6% at $2.87 on Thursday against a 52-week range of $2.14 to $4.80. AMD’s consensus analyst price target ahead of Thursday’s report was $3.11. Thursday’s gain put AMD shares up 7.5% year to date in 2015.

The after-hours reaction had AMD shares back down close to 7% at $2.65 on almost 1.1 million shares in the first 35 minutes since the 4PM closing bell. Easy come, easy go.

Intel shares closed up only 4-cents at $32.87 on Thursday, and the after-hours reaction there was down a whole 2-cents from the close.

ALSO READ: Should Investors Worry About Fresh Semiconductor Capex Cuts?

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