AMD beats estimates in Q1; aims for 'sustainable returns'
U.S. chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices posted its fiscal results for the first quarter of 2013 this afternoon, barely beating estimates in an otherwise tough three months for the technology sector.
The company posted a loss per share of $0.19 on revenue of $1.09 billion, besting analyst estimates of $0.18 on revenue of $1.04 billion. Its revenues are down six percent quarter over quarter and down 31 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago.
Highlights and lowlights:
- Gross margin was 41 percent
- Cash and equivalents totaled $1.2 billion, buoyed by the sale and leaseback of its "Lone Star" campus in Austin, Texas
- Revenue in its Computing Solutions segment dropped 9 percent sequentially and 38 percent year-over-year. Why? "Lower desktop, notebook and chipset unit shipments." The average selling price of a microprocessor increased sequentially but decreased year-over-year.
- Revenue in its Graphics segment increased 3 percent sequentially but decreased 12 percent year-over-year. The average selling price of a GPU increased sequentially as well as year-over-year.
For the second quarter, AMD predicts revenue to increase two percent over Q1, plus or minus 3 percent.
With restructuring in the rearview mirror, "we will continue to diversify our portfolio and attack high-growth markets like dense server, ultra low-power client, embedded and semi-custom solutions to create the foundation for sustainable financial returns," AMD president and chief executive Rory Read said.
The company is hoping it can get traction in the console gaming market, which is heating up in advance of the introduction of the next generation of consoles. To that end, Sony announced that an AMD APU would be used in its upcoming PS4. AMD also has several bundles on offer right now for PC gamers, for the popular titles BioShock Infinite, Crysis 3 and Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, among others.
Beyond that, the company continues its move into cloud-based gaming and has begun shipping its "Richland" generation of Elite A-Series APUs. It will also continue work on its Open 3.0 server platform.