AMD sales rise, losses shrink in Q2

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) reported a smaller net loss and increased revenue for the second quarter compared to last year, and forecast revenue growth for the third quarter.

Net loss at the Sunnyvale, Calif., chipmaker amounted to $140 million, or 40 cents a share. The company posted a net loss of $185 million, or 54 cents per share, in the year-earlier period, it said in a statement Wednesday.

The results beat the 54 cents loss per share consensus estimate of 23 analysts polled by Thomson First Call.

Second quarter sales came in at $645 million, up from $600 million the year before, AMD said. Analysts had forecast second quarter sales of $614 million, according to the Thomson First Call Web site.

Sales were down quarter-on-quarter. The company was hurt by the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and experienced weaker than expected sales into the channel in some markets, it said. AMD reported a first-quarter 2003 loss of $146 million and sales of $715 million.

PC processor sales reached $402 million in the second quarter, up 7 percent year on year, but down 14 percent from the $468 million reported in the first quarter. Sales to top-tier PC makers were strong, but more than offset by a decline in the Asian and European desktop PC market, AMD said.

Second quarter flash memory sales came out at $211 million, up 20 percent year on year, but down slightly from $218 million in the first quarter. Asian sales were hurt by SARS, but that was almost entirely compensated for by increased memory sales in Europe and North America, AMD said.

Looking ahead, AMD said it expects a revenue increase in the third quarter, even though the economic and industry conditions remain uncertain. Processor sales should be up based on seasonality and increased shipments of the Opteron processor and the first Athlon64 processors, AMD said. Sales of flash memory are expected to rise as a result of market share gains in the Asian mobile phone market and its joint venture with Fujitsu, AMD said.