Real Money’s Eric Jhonsa live-blogs AMD’s earnings report and conference call with management.
AMD bulls are hoping the company will deliver a better-than-feared full-year outlook when it reports on Tuesday afternoon.
Among analysts polled by FactSet, the consensus is for AMD to report fourth-quarter revenue of $5.51 billion (up 14.2% annually, with an assist from the Xilinx acquisition) and non-GAAP EPS of $0.67.
AMD typically provides quarterly and full-year sales guidance in its reports. For the first quarter, AMD’s revenue consensus stands at $5.5 billion (down 6.5% annually). And for 2023, the revenue consensus stands at $24.77 billion (up 5.3%).
Eric Jhonsa, Real Money’s tech columnist, will be live-blogging AMD’s earnings report, along with a call with management that’s scheduled for 5 P.M. Eastern Time.
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4:53 PM ET: Free cash flow was $443M in Q4 vs. $842M in Q3 and $736M in Q4 2021. AMD ended 2022 with $5.8B in cash/equivalents and $2.5B in debt.
4:49 PM ET: AMD’s inventories totaled $3.77B at the end of Q4, up from $3.37B at the end of Q3 and (with both Xilinx and organic increases playing roles) $1.96B a year ago.
Like some peers, AMD has made large wafer-purchase commitments with top foundry partner TSMC. Also, the ramp of AMD’s next-gen Epyc CPUs (Genoa) could be driving some inventory growth.
4:45 PM ET: Regarding the lack of a full-year guide, it’s worth noting AMD got a new CFO last week, as former Marvell CFO Jean Hu took over from long-time AMD CFO Devinder Kumar. The company might want to give Hu a little time to settle in before issuing full-year guidance.
4:41 PM ET: AMD’s non-GAAP operating expenses totaled $1.6B, up from $1.52B in Q3 and (thanks partly to the Xilinx and Pensando acquisitions) $1.1B a year ago. The company signaled on its Q3 call that it plans to slow its spending growth, particularly for consumer-centric businesses.
4:36 PM ET: $250M was spent on stock buybacks. That’s down from $617M in Q3.
4:34 PM ET: GAAP EPS was just $0.01, due to $1.04B worth of amortization charges related to the Xilinx acquisition and $310M worth of stock comp.
4:31 PM ET: AMD’s non-GAAP gross margin was 51%, up slightly from 50% in Q3 and in Q4 2021, and in-line with guidance.
For Q1, the company is guiding for a 50% non-GAAP GM.
4:28 PM ET: AMD is holding onto its AH gains: Shares are up 3.7% to $77.90.
4:26 PM ET: Regarding the Q1 guide, AMD says it expects Client and Gaming revenue to be down Y/Y again, and that Embedded and Data Center revenue is expected to be up again.
Of note: While Xilinx has been seeing organic revenue growth, annual comps for the Embedded segment are skewed by the fact that the Xilinx acquisition closed in mid-February 2022. Officially, Embedded revenue was up 1,868% Y/Y in Q4.
4:23 PM ET: Data Center revenue (dominated by Epyc server CPUs) totaled $1.66B, up 42% Y/Y but slightly below a $1.71B consensus.
Client (PC CPU) revenue totaled $903M, down 51% and below a $966M consensus.
4:21 PM ET: Driving the Q4 sales beat: AMD’s Gaming revenue (gaming GPUs and console SoCs) was $1.64B, down 7% Y/Y but above a $1.49B consensus, and its Embedded revenue (Xilinx + embedded CPUs) totaled $1.397B, above a $1.34B consensus.
4:17 PM ET: Though the Q1 sales guide was a little light, the market’s initial reaction is that the numbers are better than feared, given what was known about PC demand and customer inventory corrections.
4:16 PM ET: Results are out. Q4 revenue of $5.599B beats a $5.51B consensus. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.69 beats a $0.67 consensus.
AMD guides for Q1 revenue of $5.3B, plus or minus $300M, versus a $5.5B consensus. No full-year guidance is provided in the report.
Shares are up 3.4% AH.
4:03 PM ET: The Q4 report should be out shortly. AMD often reports a little after the market’s close (the Q3 report came out at 4:15 PM).
4:00 PM ET: Though still down 34% over the last 12 months, AMD’s stock is up 17% YTD going into earnings, thanks to a broader tech rally. Shares closed up 3.7% today to $75.15 ahead of earnings.
3:56 PM ET: CPU archrival Intel tumbled last week in response to a Q4 report that featured very weak Q1 guidance, but AMD’s stock shrugged off the news. On its call, Intel indicated its sales are being hurt by weak PC demand, softening server demand, server CPU share loss (AMD and Arm CPUs have both been taking share), and major customer inventory corrections.
3:54 PM ET: The FactSet consensus is for AMD to report Q4 revenue of $5.51B and EPS of $0.67. But its guidance (particularly the full-year guide) might have a bigger impact on how its stock moves post-earnings.
The Q1 revenue consensus is at $5.5B, and the 2023 consensus is at $24.77B.
3:51 PM ET: Hi, this is Eric Jhonsa. I’ll be live-blogging AMD’s earnings report and call.
