AMD reports Q1 2019 revenue of $1.27 billion and predicts growth for Q2

Advanced Micro Devices reported results for the first quarter ended March 31 that slightly beat earnings expectations. The PC chip maker reported non-GAAP earnings of 6 cents a share on revenues of $1.27 billion, with lower client chip sales to blame for lower performance compared to a year ago.

AMD’s performance is closely watched, alongside Intel, as a barometer for the health of the PC ecosystem. AMD’s stock is up 4% to $29.04 a share in after-hours trading.

Analysts expected Santa Clara, California-based AMD to report 5 cents per share on revenues of $1.26 billion for the first quarter.

“We delivered solid first quarter results with significant gross margin expansion as Ryzen and Epyc processor and datacenter GPU revenue more than doubled year-over-year,” said Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, in an email. “We look forward to the upcoming launches of our next-generation 7-nanometer PC, gaming and data center products which we expect to drive further market share gains and financial growth.”

AMD said that revenue from the computing and graphics division fell 26% from a year ago to $831 million. The company said the drop was due to lower graphics sales, offset by increased client processor and datacenter graphics processing unit (GPU) sales.

On Monday, in honor of its 50th anniversary, AMD unveiled the new Gold Edition versions of the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X processor and AMD Radeon VII graphics card.

The revenues were down 23% from a year ago, and earnings per share was down compared to 11 cents a share a year ago.

Above: AMD introduced the third-generation of Ryzen chips, for shipment in mid-2019.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

For the second quarter of 2019, AMD expects revenue to be approximately $1.52 billion, plus or minus $50 million, an increase of approximately 19% sequentially and a decrease of approximately 13% year-over-year.

The sequential Q2 increase is expected to be driven by growth across all businesses. The Q2 year-over-year decrease is expected to be primarily driven by lower graphics channel sales, negligible blockchain-related GPU revenue, and lower semi-custom revenue.

In Q1, the client processor average selling price (ASP) was up year-over-year, driven by Ryzen processor sales. Client ASP was down slightly quarter-over-quarter due to a decrease in mobile processor ASP.

The Q1 GPU ASP increased year-over-year primarily driven by data center GPU sales. GPU ASP was up sequentially driven by improved product mix.

The Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment revenue was $441 million, down 17% year-over-year and up 2% sequentially. The year-over-year revenue decrease was primarily due to lower semi-custom product revenue, partially offset by higher server sales. The quarter-over-quarter increase was primarily driven by higher semi-custom revenue.