When Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) reports quarterly earnings on April 25 after the market close, as opposed to the later April 30 estimated release date, the stock could finally break the downward trend that started last summer 2017. The bearishness is hardly surprising: AMD traded in the $2.50 - $30 just over a year ago, so profit-taking is expected. Bearish short float at 18.88 percent though could prove the positive catalyst driving the stock higher. AMD just needs an earnings beat and must issue a strong outlook.
Ahead of the ER, AMD is drawing attention to its competitor, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and its GeForce "Partner" Program. Nvidia’s GPP claims to give gamers full transparency into the GPU platform and software. The catch is that the partners must exclusively brand with Nvidia, not AMD and the Radeon (Polaris / Vega). Proprietary features like G-Sync weakens competition in the industry and ultimately fragments it.
If consumers decide this direction is not the way for the GPU to go, it will support AMD. As prices fall hard in the next few weeks for GPUs, AMD must get as much positive coverage for its Vega and Polaris cards. Though the latest Polaris card refresh is a non-event, PC builders may power the gaming system with it due to pricing, performance enhancements and efficiency improvements.
The real driver to AMD’s upcoming quarter will be Ryzen CPU sales, uptake of the server chip EPYC and a timeline for the second-generation Ryzen chip release.
