AMD stock rallies to record close after CEO sounds positive notes on 2021 and PC market
Last Updated: Nov. 30, 2020 at 4:16 p.m. ET First Published: Nov. 30, 2020 at 3:16 p.m. ET
By Wallace Witkowski
Lisa Su tells conference ‘we see 2021 as a growth year for PCs’ after pandemic boom, expects first quarter to be ‘better than seasonal’
Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s stock closed at a record high Monday after the company’s chief executive said she expects continued growth in the PC market after a pandemic boom and a better-than-seasonal first quarter in 2021 for the chip maker.
AMD AMD, +6.27% shares finished up 6.3% to close at $92.66, topping its former record of $92.18 set on Sept. 1.
In a conference interview with Credit Suisse analyst John Pitzer, AMD CEO Lisa Su said she doesn’t see the COVID-19 boost in PC demand falling off in 2021.
“We’ve spent a lot of time talking to our customers and their customers’ customers, and I think what you’ll hear is that, really, we think this is more of a longer-lasting situation where the PC has just become essential,” Su said.
"I think we see 2021 as a growth year for PCs, which perhaps we haven't heard in a while," Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Chief Executive Lisa Su, second from right, told a Credit Suisse conference Monday.
“And so you know the idea that a household, you could do one PC per household, perhaps if you’re only using it an hour a day, it makes sense,” she continued. “But now it’s really about one PC per person.”
“I think we see 2021 as a growth year for PCs, which perhaps we haven’t heard in a while,” Su said. “And more importantly, I think the product portfolio that we have is sort of very focused on some of these higher and feature sets as well, that we think will play well for our long-term share gain prospects.”
Su also said she expected the traditionally slow first quarter to be “a little bit better than seasonal” in 2021.
AMD has slowly but steadily been chipping away at Intel Corp.’s INTC, +1.89% dominance in PCs and now has about 13% of the market in laptops.
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Back in late October, AMD not only reported quarterly results and an outlook that topped Wall Street expectation, but announced plans to acquire chip maker Xilinx Inc. XLNX, +5.86% for $35 billion.
For the year, AMD shares are up 102%, compared with a 44% rise in the PHLX Semiconductor Index SOX, 1.21%, a 12% gain by the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.46%, and a 36% rise by the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite COMP, -0.06%.
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