Tech

AMD soars 10% after meeting earnings expectations, but revenue misses

Key Points
  • AMD reported earnings in line with expectations but revenue fell short. 
  • The semiconductor company expects strong sales growth in 2019
  • First-quarter sales, however, are projected to be lower than Wall Street's estimates. 
Lisa T. Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Shares of AMD jumped as much as 10 percent in after hours trade following earnings results.

The semiconductor company reported earnings in line with expectations, but revenue fell short. AMD reported earnings of 8 cents per share on revenue of $1.42 billion. Wall Street had projected earnings per share of 8 cents on $1.44 billion in revenue, according to Refinitiv consensus estimates.

AMD President and CEO Lisa Su said the company continued to grow significantly revenue for a second straight year.

"Importantly, we more than doubled our EPYC processor shipments sequentially and delivered record GPU datacenter revenue in the quarter," she said in a statement.

AMD issues weaker than expected quarterly guidance
VIDEO0:4400:44
AMD issues weaker than expected quarterly guidance

Su said she expects 2019 to be another strong year because of AMD's competitive product portfolio.

AMD forecasts 2019 sales to grow in the "high single digit percentage" range. Wall Street had forecast 2019 sales of $6.88 billion, which would represent year-over-year revenue growth of 6 percent.

AMD also expects adjusted gross margin to be more than 41 percent for the full year.

For the first quarter, however, AMD said it expects sales of $1.25 billion. Analysts had projected first-quarter sales to be $1.47 billion, according to a Refinitiv consensus estimate.

The semiconductor company said its projected 24 year-over-year decline in first-quarter sales will be "primarily driven by lower graphics sales due to excess channel inventory, the absence of blockchain-related GPU revenue and lower memory sales."

On Monday, AMD fell 8 percent after competitor Nvidia slashed its guidance, citing economic conditions in China. In its release, Nvidia also mentioned continued inventory issues related to the "crypto-currency boom."

In 2018, AMD was the best performing stock in the S&P 500, gaining 73 percent.

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