Shares have rallied 35% since earnings report showed chip maker succeeding against larger rival, and new data shows market-share wins in data center, microprocessors
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. shares closed at a sixth consecutive record high on Wednesday following continued indications that the chip maker is taking market share away from larger rival Intel Corp.
AMD AMD, +5.52% shares closed up 5.5% at a record $118.77 Wednesday, after carving out a new all-time intraday high of $122.49. Shares closed at a then-record $112.56 on Tuesday. The sixth straight day of record-high closing prices coincides with a sixth straight day of gains of 2% or more. The last time AMD shares experienced such a streak was June 2, when the stock rose for seven days in a row, according to Dow Jones data.
Coincidentally, AMD’s streak began on July 28, the day after the company said it expected stronger data-center sales in the second half of the year, even as quarterly sales nearly tripled from those of a year ago, and hiked its revenue forecast to a 60% gain for the year. Since then, shares have rallied as much as 35%, while Intel INTC, -0.30% shares, which closed down 0.3% Wednesday, have gained 1% since July 28.
Additionally, the PHLX Semiconductor Index SOX, +1.18% closed at its fourth record high in a row at 3,436.90, having finished at 3,396.66 on Tuesday. Chip stocks have been popular amid a global shortage of semiconductors that has pushed prices up.
Citi Research analyst Christopher Danley, who has neutral ratings on both AMD and Intel, wrote in a Wednesday note that data from Mercury Research showed that while total microprocessor shipments had declined 3.1% quarter-over-quarter, AMD’s total share of the market increased to 16.9% in the second quarter from 16.1% in the first quarter. Meanwhile, Intel’s share fell to 83.1% in the second quarter from 83.9% in the first quarter.
The data also showed gains for AMD in the important data-center category. The Mercury data showed AMD with 8.9% share in servers, up from 5.5% in the year-ago second quarter and 8.2% in this year’s first quarter. That’s compared with Intel’s 91.1% share, down from 94.5% in the year-ago second quarter and 91.8% in the first quarter.
Additionally, a Wednesday report from tech news site wccftech.com noted that AMD CPUs are still outselling Intel, according to data compiled from MindFactory, Germany’s largest tech retailer.
On Tuesday, AMD announced its line of Radeon Pro W6000X series of GPUs would be available in Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.28% Mac Pro desktops. The addition of AMD’s high-powered graphics cards to the already-pricey $6,000 Mac Pro can tack on up to another $10,000 to the workstation’s sticker price.
Another tailwind for AMD shares could be coming from a Bloomberg report Tuesday that the U.K. may block GPU rival Nvidia Corp.’s NVDA, +2.32% $40 billion acquisition of Arm from Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. 9984, -0.82%, citing national security reasons, a development that could benefit AMD.