AXA Financial ups the ante on AMD
April 10, 2006 13:48:27 (ET)
<<SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- AXA Financial Inc. has upped the ante on Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the world's No. 2 computer chipmaker.
AXA Financial disclosed Monday that it raised its stake in AMD to 52.2 million shares, or 10.8% of the chipmaker's outstanding common stock, up from 24.8 million shares or 6.1% reported at the end of 2005, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The new purchases have made the financial services giant AMD's biggest shareholder. A majority of the shares are held by Alliance Capital Management L.P., a major subsidiary of AXA Financial, which has about $644 billion of assets under management.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD (AMD, Trade) had a terrific run in the market last year, but the stock has lost some its shine lately. The shares are down 18% the past two months as concerns have surfaced that renewed competition from Intel Corp. (INTC, Trade) will hurt AMD later this year.
AMD shares are still up 10% for the year to date.
Elsewhere in regulatory filings, AXA Financial reported cutting its stake in Marvell Technology Group (MRVL, Trade), while boosting its ownership of KLA-Tencor Corp. (KLAC, Trade)
It reduced its position in Marvell Tech to 25.5 million shares, or 8.9%, down from 39.9 million shares or 14.6% disclosed at the end of last year.
Marvell Tech, also of Sunnyvale, Calif., makes chips used in hard-disk drives, Internet-networking gear and consumer-electronic devices. Its shares are up 6.5% for the year, despite losing some ground of late.
AXA Financial upped its stake in KLA-Tencor to 22.8 million shares, or 11.4%, up from 7.2% at year-end 2005.
Based in San Jose, Calif., KLA-Tencor is the nation's second-largest chip-equipment maker. Its stock is down more than 3% for the year.
Separately Monday, the stock-research unit at UBS cut KLA-Tencor and two of its competitors to hold from buy, saying that it anticipates the start of a "short and shallow" fall in equipment orders in the third quarter of 2006. The others downgraded were Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT, Trade) and Lam Research Corp. (LRCX, Trade)>> |
