AMD ($17.~15.50)reports first profit in more than two years
Tuesday January 20, 8:48 pm ET
By Matthew Fordahl, AP Technology Writer
SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- Advanced Micro Devices Inc. posted its first profit in more than two years and recorded near-record sales as demand for AMD microprocessors and flash memory surged in the fourth quarter.
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For the three months ended Dec. 28, AMD earned $43 million, or 12 cents per share, on sales of $1.206 billion. In the same period last year, it lost $855 million, or $2.49 per share, on sales of $686.4 million.
Analysts were expecting a profit of 4 cents per share on sales of $1.08 billion, according to a survey of Thomson First Call. The company last posted a profit in the second quarter of 2001. Sales were just shy of AMD's record, set in the third quarter 2000, of $1.207 billion.
"Fourth-quarter profitability was driven by solid sales growth across all business lines," Robert Rivet, AMD's chief financial officer, said Tuesday.
Company officials said demand was especially strong for its Athlon XP microprocessor, and momentum was growing for its newly launched Athlon 64 chips. In all, AMD's Computation Products Group posted an operating profit of $63 million on sales of $581 million.
AMD is considerably smaller than rival Intel Corp., which last week reported profits of $2.17 billion on sales of $8.74 billion. But AMD has managed to match and even exceed the performance of its larger competitor's offerings.
AMD also is challenging Intel in the area of servers and workstations with its Opteron chip. During the quarter, AMD reported deals with DaimlerChrysler, Qualcomm, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. It's also launching an alliance with Sun Microsystems Inc., which will build servers with Opteron chips.
AMD's flash memory unit saw growth, but posted a loss. Flash memory is commonly used in digital cameras, cell phones and other devices. Sales were $566 million in the fourth quarter, a 161 percent increase from the same period last year. The flash business narrowed its operational loss to $3 million.
The company expects sales overall to be down slightly in the current quarter, traditionally the weakest for high-tech companies.
For the year, AMD lost $274.5 million, or 79 cents per share, on sales of $3.52 billion. In 2002, it posted a loss of $1.3 billion, or $3.81 per share, on sales of $2.7 billion.
The results were announced after the close of trading. Shares of AMD closed at $17.38, up 62 cents, in Tuesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. In the extended session, shares lost 43 cents. |
