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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Y. Samuel Arai who wrote (88649)	1/20/2000 10:28:00 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1596689

The usual hype re earnings but please note the comment re getting caught in Intel's down draft....not sure what they mean ____________________________________________________________ AMD posts blowout fourth quarter Athlon microprocessor juices up business rebound By Cecily Fraser, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 7:06 PM ET Jan 20, 2000 NewsWatch SUNNYVALE, Calif. (CBS.MW) -- Shares of Advanced Micro Devices rose to a 52-week high Thursday after the company handily topped analysts fourth-quarter profit expectations on the back of strong demand for its computer chips. "Our results reflected both the seasonal boost in already-robust semiconductor demand and the successful achievement of our aggressive goals for the AMD Athlon processor," said W.J. Sanders III, chief executive officer, in a statement. Today on CBS MarketWatch Nasdaq coattails elude Dow Lucent releases quarterly results GM tops targets General Electric profit climbs Improved margins boost Sears More top stories... CBS MarketWatch Columns Updated: 01/20/2000 4:23:36 PM ET AMD (amd) said sales totaled $968.7 million, up 23 percent from $788.8 million in the year-ago period. Sales growth of its Athlon line of chips alone contributed more than half of the company's sequential sales growth, which exceeded $300 million, the company said in its report after the markets closed Wednesday. On Wall Street, the stock climbed as high as 45 1/8 before settling down 3 to 38, caught in rival Intel's downdraft. Intel shares closed off 4 7/16 to 95 5/8. See Hardware Report for chip share activity. "The microprocessor business is seasonally strong in the fourth quarter, which will help (AMD's) sequential pattern," said Jim Barlage, an analyst at Lehman Bros., who was expecting the company to turn in a profit of 6 cents, with revenue of $845 million. Profits more than double The chipmaker posted net income of $65 million, or 43 cents a share. According to the First Call survey, AMD was expected to make 1 cent a share. AMD -- Intel's chief chip rival -- hadn't posted a profit since the fourth quarter of 1998 when the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chip maker earned $22.3 million, or 15 cents a share. Analyst Hans Mosesmann at Prudential Securities said AMD of Sunnyvale, Calif., is on the right track. "I think the company can sustain profitability in the short term," he said. "They have a very good product that has legs, that has the potential of competing with Intel. They'll have the ability of generating profits through most of 2000." Microprocessor muscle The ramp of AMD's Athlon microprocessor has added a leg up to the company's attempts at a rebound. In early January, AMD rolled out its 800MHz Athlon, going head-to-head with Intel's 800MHz Pentium III chip. "AMD Athlon processor unit sales surpassed our goal of 800,000 units for the quarter and enabled us to achieve our target of cumulative unit shipments of one million for the year," the company said. CEO Sanders told analysts during a conference call that the company plans to introduce a new Athlon chip running at 850MHZ this quarter, with a 900MHZ to follow soon thereafter. A healthy PC market also led to better-than-expected demand for AMD's K6 family of microprocessors, the company said. The K6 family is made up of low-cost chips popular with manufacturers of hot-selling personal computers priced under $1000. Flashes AMD said that growing popularity for high-density, low-power flash memory devices, driven primarily by cellular telephone applications, resulted in sales of $275 million for its memory group. That's more than double $132 million reported last year. Demand for AMD flash memory products continues to exceed capacity, the company said. The company's communications group achieved 48 percent sales growth from last year, with sales hitting $94 million in the fourth quarter. Looking ahead, the company said it sees sales in the first quarter to be "flat to slightly down," reflecting a seasonal slowdown in the retail sector of the personal computer market following an "exceptionally strong" fourth quarter in the industry. Mosesmann said the outlook shouldn't shake investor confidence, because this happens every year. "It's going to be seasonal for Intel and seasonal for AMD," he said. Overall PC processor unit shipments will grow substantially from the comparable period of 1999, but will decline modestly from the record level of the fourth quarter. Unit shipments of Athlon processors are expected to increase, AMD said. Cecily Fraser is a reporter for CBS MarketWatch. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------