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AMD, a leading semiconductor company, released its fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday, meeting analyst expectations for earnings per share (EPS) but outperforming on revenue. However, despite the positive aspects of the report, AMD’s shares faced a downturn of over 6% in extended trading due to a first-quarter forecast that missed analysts’ expectations.
Here’s a breakdown of how AMD performed compared to consensus estimates for the quarter ending in December:
– EPS: 77 cents per share, adjusted, meeting the 77 cents per share expected by analysts.
– Revenue: $6.17 billion, surpassing the $6.12 billion expected.
For the upcoming first quarter, AMD anticipates approximately $5.4 billion in sales, with a margin of $300 million in either direction. This forecast fell short of analysts’ projections, as they were expecting revenue around $5.73 billion. AMD acknowledged an expected sequential decline in major businesses, including PC chips, during the quarter. It also predicted that data center revenue would remain flat, balancing declines in server central processing units (CPUs) with increased sales of graphics processing units (GPUs) essential for training and deploying generative artificial intelligence models.
AMD’s CEO, Lisa Su, remarked during an analyst call, “For 2024, we expect the demand environment to remain mixed.”
In the fourth quarter, AMD’s net income was $667 million, or 41 cents per share, a significant improvement compared to $21 million, or 1 cent per share, in the same period the previous year.
The company provided a positive update on the sales of its new AI chips, with expectations of $3.5 billion in data center GPU sales under its “Instinct” brand in 2024, surpassing the initial estimate of $2 billion in October 2023. AMD highlighted collaborations with major cloud customers such as Microsoft, Oracle, and Meta on Instinct GPU deployments for internal AI workloads and external offerings.
AMD’s data center business, including server CPUs and AI chips, experienced a substantial 38% annual growth, reaching $2.28 billion in sales, solidifying its position as the company’s largest segment.
While AMD’s client segment, primarily dealing with chips for PCs and laptops, witnessed an impressive 62% year-over-year increase to $1.46 billion in sales, the gaming segment faced challenges with a 17% decline in sales. AMD attributed this to slower console sales and predicted a “significant” double-digit percentage decline in semi-custom revenue for the current quarter.
AMD’s embedded segment, covering chips for networking, reported $1.1 billion in sales, reflecting a 24% annual decrease.
Despite the positive update on AI chip sales, the cautious outlook for the first quarter led to a decline in AMD’s shares in extended trading, emphasizing the ongoing challenges and uncertainties in the semiconductor industry.