AMD reports better-than-expected financial results

AMD saw better-than-expected revenue in the first quarter

American chipmaker AMD's financial results for the first quarter of 2018 beat out analyst expectations, sending shares in the firm skyrocketing.

During this period, the firm generated $1.65 billion of revenue, growing by 40 per cent year-on-year and 23 per cent quarter-over-quarter.

The company said this growth was driven by higher revenue in its computing and graphics business. It also announced an operating income of $120 million and net income of $81 million.

In a further sign of growth, AMD expects to see revenue of $1.65 billion in the second quarter. Shares in the firm increased by as much as 11 per cent following the news.

Gross margin was at 36 per cent, a growth of four per cent year-over-year and two per cent quarter-over-quarter. AMD attributed this to the success of the Ryzen, Radeon and EPYC processors.

These numbers are a significant improvement for AMD's situation last year, when it reported net losses of $33 million and $19 million in the previous quarter.

Diluted earnings per share came in at $0.08, compared to $0.04 a year ago and $0.02 in the prior quarter - suggesting that its share pricing is growing in value.

"The first quarter was an outstanding start to 2018 with 40 percent year-over-year revenue growth," said Dr. Lisa Su, AMD president and CEO.

"PC, gaming and datacenter adoption of our new, high-performance products continues to accelerate. We are excited about our long-term roadmaps and focused on delivering sustained revenue growth and profitability."

Breaking these results down, AMD's computing and graphics business saw the biggest growth. It achieved revenue of $1.12 billion, up 95 per cent year-over-year and 23 per cent quarter-over-quarter.

AMD said the average selling price of its processors increased significantly over this period due to the success of the range of Ryzen products.

However, revenue of the enterprise, embedded and semi-custom (EESC) decreased by 12 per cent year-over-year to $532 million. AMD said this was caused by "lower semi-custom revenue".