Advanced Micro Devices' Improved Near-Term Sales Trends Earn It An Oppenheimer Upgrade

Citing improved near-term sales trend and lower balance sheet risk, Oppenheimer upgraded Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD to Perform from Underperform. The firm also left its estimates unchanged.

Analyst Rick Schafer views several positive developments, such as a smaller than expected decline in PC shipments, early signs of Polaris winning share back at the low-end of the graphics market and early positive feedback on its Zen processors, which are currently being sampled and are set to launch early next year, as providing the company a better set-up.

Opportunity in China

Oppenheimer sees low-hanging fruit for the company in Chin. The firm also believes the company's $1.3 billion financing alleviates going-concern risk.

Going by Intel Corporation's INTC positive pre-announcement and data points from NB ODMs, the firm sees third quarter outperformance. That said, the firm believes AMD is still fighting an uphill battle due to the competitive threat posed by Intel in the computer processor market and NVIDIA Corporation NVDA in the graphic user interface market.

Long-Term Challenging

The firm believes improvement in growth/profitability remains a challenge. Although the firm expects Polaris and Zen to provide some neat-term relief, the firm is of the view that it's too early to determine the magnitude of share shifts.