Tag Archives: Advanced Micro Devices

Computers

Intel aims for longer tablet battery life with new Haswell chips

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Intel says it will increase the battery life of tablets and hybrid PCs that use its microprocessors, with new low-power Haswell chips that will start shipping later this year.

The chip maker said Tuesday that its upcoming Core Y series chips will run at 4.5-watts using a metric called SDP (scenario design power), which measures the power used to dissipate heat while running certain apps on mobile and touch devices.

That’s a lower figure than Intel was aiming for initially, Intel spokesman Dan Snyder said via e-mail. Intel previously said it would release Core Y chips with a 6-watt SDP.

Intel’s use of SDP has been criticized, however, since it differs from the widely-used and accepted TDP (Thermal Design Power) metric. Intel counters that TDP may not be applicable on devices such as tablets, because they differ so much in design from laptops. Rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices disagree.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

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Dow Keeps Heading North, but Tech Takes a Hit

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By Jessica Alling, The Motley Fool

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After huge gains yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is on the move once again. The index is up 67 points as of 11:35 a.m. EDT following positive jobs numbers after last week’s disappointing reports. And though the tech sector had been some of the driving force behind the Dow’s climb over the past two days, some bad news has caused many of the Dow’s big players to fall.

Last week was a rough one for the labor market, which had to bear the brunt of three negative jobs reports. With today’s jobless claims release, investors are getting a breather from the bad news. Claims from last week fell sharply to 346,000 — a 42,000 drop. This follows last week’s huge jump to 388,000 claims, which was way over analyst expectations. This week’s numbers fell below expectations, giving the markets some added fuel this morning.

Because of the Easter holiday and spring break, jobs data can greatly vary in March and April, which is likely to be the reason we’re seeing such great differences from week to week. But overall, the jobs data is signaling a decrease in layoffs, as businesses hold on to their workforces.

Death of the PC — it’s real
Last night, the most recent sales data for PCs was released, much to the detriment of many tech stocks’ gains for the week. Worldwide shipments of personal computers fell by 14% in the last quarter, the largest drop ever recorded by the IDC since it began tracking the data in 1994. The drop was double the amount expected by the IDC, and resulted in the fourth consecutive quarter with a year-over-year drop in sales. As you may have guessed, this is terrible news not only for the computer manufacturers, but also for software companies, processor manufacturers, and others.

Hewlett-Packard is down 6.23% so far in trading, with news that its shipments were down by 24% year over year. Chief rival Dell‘s sales were also down, but by a much lower 11%. On the bright side, even though its shipments have dropped, HP still maintains a 25% share of the PC market — the No. 1 spot.

Microsoft is down 4.9% following the news. The company was dealt a double blow when Goldman Sachs downgraded it this morning, stating that its continued losses in market share and weak performance in entering the consumer electronics market is troubling. Mr. Softy is also partially being blamed for the slowdown in PC sales, due to Windows 8. The drastic change in user interface has been questioned, with some consumers feeling confused with the new OS, according to IDC‘s Bob O’Donnell.

Intel and its rival Advanced Micro Devices are both feeling the losses, down 2.65% and 3.07%, respectively. Since both are heavily reliant on the PC market, any slowdown would be a big hit to revenue. Though Intel‘s latest efforts have made it a contender in the Chinese mobile

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/11/dow-keeps-heading-north-but-tech-takes-a-hit/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Has AMD Become the Perfect Stock?

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By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

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Every investor would love to stumble upon the perfect stock. But will you ever really find a stock that provides everything you could possibly want?

One thing’s for sure: You’ll never discover truly great investments unless you actively look for them. Let’s discuss the ideal qualities of a perfect stock, then decide if Advanced Micro Devices fits the bill.

The quest for perfection
Stocks that look great based on one factor may prove horrible elsewhere, making due diligence a crucial part of your investing research. The best stocks excel in many different areas, including these important factors:

  • Growth. Expanding businesses show healthy revenue growth. While past growth is no guarantee that revenue will keep rising, it’s certainly a better sign than a stagnant top line.
  • Margins. Higher sales mean nothing if a company can’t produce profits from them. Strong margins ensure that company can turn revenue into profit.
  • Balance sheet. At debt-laden companies, banks and bondholders compete with shareholders for management’s attention. Companies with strong balance sheets don’t have to worry about the distraction of debt.
  • Money-making opportunities. Return on equity helps measure how well a company is finding opportunities to turn its resources into profitable business endeavors.
  • Valuation. You can’t afford to pay too much for even the best companies. By using normalized figures, you can see how a stock‘s simple earnings multiple fits into a longer-term context.
  • Dividends. For tangible proof of profits, a check to shareholders every three months can’t be beat. Companies with solid dividends and strong commitments to increasing payouts treat shareholders well.

With those factors in mind, let’s take a closer look at AMD.

Factor

What We Want to See

Actual

Pass or Fail?

Growth

5-year annual revenue growth > 15%

(1.5%)

Fail
 

1-year revenue growth > 12%

(17.4%)

Fail

Margins

Gross margin > 35%

35.8%

Pass
 

Net margin > 15%

(21.8%)

Fail

Balance sheet

Debt to equity < 50%

379.6%

Fail
 

Current ratio > 1.3

1.62

Pass

Opportunities

Return on equity > 15%

(111.2%)

Fail

Valuation

Normalized P/E < 20

NM

NM

Dividends

Current yield > 2%

0%

Fail
 

5-year dividend growth > 10%

0%

Fail
       
 

Total score

  

2 out of 9

Source: S&P Capital IQ. NM = not meaningful due to negative earnings. Total score = number of passes.

Since we looked at AMD last year, the company has dropped two points, as the company has gone from a profit to a substantial loss. The stock has also performed horribly, having lost more than 60% of its value in the past year.

Right now, AMD is suffering from the worst of two different worlds. On one hand, it hasn’t

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

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AMD Wants to Be Tech's Next Apple-Sized Turnaround

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By Alex Planes, The Motley Fool

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You certainly can’t call Advanced Micro Devices a company of small ambitions. Last week, AMD vice president Roy Taylor told hardware blog Bit-Tech that his company might soon follow in the footsteps of Apple and IBM , two companies in the tech industry with the most legendary turnaround stories.

The upside for investors would be massive. For comparison, let’s take a look at how much Apple shares have grown in value since the launch of the first iMac in 1998, which was the first major new product of the second Steve Jobs era:

AAPL Total Return Price data by YCharts.

And here’s IBM‘s boom following its 1993 hiring of Lou Gerstner, who’s frequently credited with spearheading IBM‘s turnaround:

IBM Total Return Price data by YCharts.

Pretty impressive! So, how exactly does Roy Taylor expect AMD to follow in these deep footsteps? Here’s the relevant quote from Bit-Tech:

But, thinks Taylor, with the company’s new generation of APUs (a [central processor] and [graphics processor] combined on one chip), it is well set for the future. A large part of this will be driven by AMD having secured deals with Nintendo and Sony to have its APUs in the Wii U and PS4 (and it’s long rumoured the upcoming new [Microsoft] Xbox will also feature an AMD chip). With these processors in place there is significant incentive for developers to work hard on making their games and apps run well on AMD hardware, which in turn may drive uptake of AMD [chips] in other sectors of the market.

Chips in consoles. For reference, the entire lifetime global sales of the current-gen consoles (counting the original Wii as well as the Wii U for Nintendo) to date is roughly 250 million units. The Xbox 360 has been out since 2005. The Wii and the PS3 have been out since 2006. Nearly 210 million smartphones were sold in 2012. Over 350 million PCs sold that same year. And you want to focus on a segment of technology that’s not only sold less than a tenth as many units per year as these two primary groups combined, but one that’s got increasing competition from mobile devices as well? The Wii U, which is the only true “next-gen” console available, is already showing disappointing sales on the market. The original Wii sold over 7 million units in its first year on the market. Nintendo’s already cut first-year estimates for the Wii U to around 4 million units.

It’s one thing to be ambitious. But if you’re going to shoot for the moon, don’t try to do it with a rocket that’s already failed to lift off the launch pad. Steve Jobs understood that. So did Lou Gerstner. That’s why Apple and IBM today bear almost no resemblance to the companies that originally handed those executives the reins. AMD‘s chip competitors have shifted with the market. Will AMD‘s executives realize that they need to shift as …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

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Dow Returns to Record Highs

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By John Divine, The Motley Fool

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Not only did the Dow Jones Industrial Average set a new intraday record today, but it ended at all-time highs and two-thirds of its components closed in the black. Paradoxically, expectations for low growth this earnings season may be aiding the market‘s gravity-defying run. Potentially easy-to-beat low expectations combined with some product-driven rallies helped the Dow add about 60 points, or 0.4%, to close at 14,673. 

Technology in particular showed up today, ending as the second-hottest major sector. Leading the charge in blue chips, Microsoft surged 3.6% on excitement about its new Xbox model. Word has it the company will showcase the upcoming console at an event next month, where price points (there could be two versions) and product specs will be revealed. 

Shares of chip maker Advanced Micro Devices  rose in connection with the new console as well. Shares rocketed more than 13% higher yesterday when word broke that AMD will provide the processor for the next Xbox, and investors continued to bid the stock 1.5% higher today. Microsoft is hoping the console catches on as a versatile, all-in-one entertainment device. If it can pull that off, both AMD and Microsoft stand to benefit from its ubiquity.

Intel shares continued a rally that began late Monday after details broke on its new Thunderbolt port for Macs. Enabling major advances in graphical content and transfer speeds, the Thunderbolt reportedly supports  data transfers of up to 20 gigabits per second. Though major production isn’t expected until 2014, a product demonstration yesterday got Wall Street antsy. Shares rose 3.1% today.

Of course, the Dow still had a handful of laggards, and Procter & Gamble ended as the index’s worst performer, down 0.7%. P&G’s slip wasn’t predicated by much substance. The stock mostly suffered with the rest of the consumer goods sector, which, next to utilities, suffered the poorest showing Tuesday. 

 

When it comes to dominating markets, it doesn’t get much better than Intel’s position in the PC microprocessor arena. However, that market is maturing, and Intel finds itself in a precarious situation longer term if it doesn’t find new avenues for growth. In this premium research report on Intel, our analyst runs through all of the key topics investors should understand about the chip giant. Click here now to learn more.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; FoolAnalyticsData.push({ eventType: “TickerReportPitch”, …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

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Can Microsoft Save the Video Game Industry?

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By Rick Munarriz, The Motley Fool

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Microsoft may be the video game industry’s final hope.

The software giant is reportedly gravitating to May 21 as the date when it will introduce the successor to the iconic Xbox 360.

Given the poor market reception for Nintendo‘s Wii U late last year and the slow-building buzz for Sony‘s upcoming PlayStation 4, it may be up to Microsoft to bring die-hard gamers back to the console when it rolls out what some have been calling the Xbox 720.

Nintendo was supposed to save the day with November’s Wii U rollout. It flopped. Nintendo went on to hose down its target for consoles shipped in its fiscal year that ended last month. You know things are bad when Best Buy is bundling the $60 Nintendo Land game with the entry-level system at no additional cost to the $300 price tag. Amazon.com has several merchants selling new Wii U basic systems for less than November’s price.

The Wii U has been on the market for less than five months, and it’s already vulnerable?

Microsoft will have a better shot. Its Xbox 360 has been the consistent monthly sales leader for more than two years.

Advanced Micro Devices saw its stock soar 13% on unconfirmed reports that the new Xbox will run on an AMD chip.

Microsoft may be a laggard in mobile operating systems, and it’s struggling on desktop, but it’s the king of the video game hill.

What can investors expect outside of AMD architecture? Well, gamers will want to know if the chatter about the new system requiring an Internet connection to play games is true. We live in connected times, but if online access is necessary to play every game, it will be a deal breaker for folks with spotty or no connections.

There will also be the thorny issue of backward compatibility — which could be a problem with Sony’s new system — and the earlier rumor that the new Xbox wouldn’t play secondhand games. Tethering purchases to the original buyer would be devastating to GameStop‘s high-margin but declining resale business. If the reason used games won’t play on the new system is because distribution will be exclusivity digital — hence the online requirement — GameStop will have even bigger problems.

For now, there’s little that we can do but wait. With Sony and now possibly Microsoft hitting the market with a new console later this year, it’s going to be a defining holiday season for the industry.

Take the game on the road
The video game industry has been disrupted by the mobile revolution, but with so many different companies it can be daunting to know how to profit in the space. Fortunately, The Motley Fool has released a free report on mobile called “The Next Trillion-Dollar Revolution” that tells you how. The report describes why this seismic shift will dwarf any other technology revolution seen before it and also names …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Why HP's Moonshot Can't Kill Intel

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By Anders Bylund, The Motley Fool

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Intel investors have worried about mobile chips making inroads into the server market. Now they’re coming — and it’s not the end of the world after all.

Mobile processors have a lot in common with modern server chips. In both cases, power efficiency often matters more than raw performance. For smartphones, that means longer battery life on the supercomputer in your pocket. For servers, it’s all about the data center’s power and cooling bills. Thousands of less powerful but highly efficient chips can get more done than hundreds of monolithic powerhouses.

So when Hewlett-Packard unveiled its long-awaited Moonshot server systems yesterday, Intel stockholders were on pins and needles. The Moonshot project has been rumored to use ARM  chips made by privately held Calxeda. Will this be the first foot in the data center door for ARM and its legion of chip-building allies? Is this the end of Intel’s hegemony in the server space, a fading Advanced Micro Devices notwithstanding?

Sliding another server into the 45+system Moonshot chassis.

Not exactly. Sure, HP will offer Calxeda-based systems later on. AMD will also make an appearance, using its highly integrated combinations of central processing cores and number-crunching graphics units. But you know who’s first in line?

That would be Intel.

“The first HP ProLiant Moonshot Server is available today with the Intel Atom Processor S1260,” says HP‘s website (emphasis mine). By the way, its site is already powered by Moonshot servers, handling an average of 3 million hits per day using no more power than 12 60-watt lightbulbs. No mean feat, I’d say.

HP claims that replacing traditional servers with equally powerful Moonshot systems can save you up to 89% in energy costs, take 80% less floor space, and cost 77% less. These numbers are “based on HP internal analysis,” with no further discussion of the assumptions used. Your mileage may vary. Still, delivering results in that ballpark is an impressive feat that shows how efficient these mobile products can be when bunched together by the hundreds.

So the mobile revolution in the data center is under way. Intel is not only along for the ride, but is riding shotgun next to the first big-name driver.

When it comes to dominating markets, it doesn’t get much better than Intel’s position in the PC microprocessor arena. However, that market is maturing, and Intel finds itself in a precarious situation longer term if it doesn’t find new avenues for growth. In this premium research report on Intel, our analyst runs through all of the key topics investors should understand about the chip giant. Click here now to learn more.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

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Why Advanced Micro Devices Shares Popped

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By Evan Niu, CFA, The Motley Fool

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Although we don’t believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes — just in case they’re material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Advanced Micro Devices popped today by as much as 13% on a Bloomberg report that Microsoft‘s next Xbox gaming console will use AMD chips.

So what: Codenamed “Jaguar,” AMD‘s chips are reportedly set to power the software giant’s next-generation Xbox gaming console, which is expected to be unveiled next month. AMD chips are also powering Sony‘s upcoming PlayStation 4, displacing graphics rival NVIDIA.

Now what: The move will mark a transition to x86 architecture, replacing the Power PC architecture currently in use. Rumors of seeing AMD in the next Xbox aren’t exactly new, but having a high-profile outlet like Bloomberg reporting it adds to the credibility. CEO Rory Read has been trying to diversify away from the stagnant PC market, and while the console gaming market offers less volume than PCs, it would still be an incremental gain for the chip maker.

Interested in more info on Advanced Micro Devices? Add it to your watchlist by clicking here.

The mobile revolution is still in its infancy, but with so many different companies, it can be daunting to know how to profit in the space. Fortunately, The Motley Fool has released a free report on mobile named “The Next Trillion-Dollar Revolution” that tells you how. The report describes why this seismic shift will dwarf any other technology revolution seen before it and also names the company at the forefront of the trend. You can access this report today by clicking here — it’s free.

The article Why Advanced Micro Devices Shares Popped originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends NVIDIA and owns shares of Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

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HP's Still Trying to Solve Yesterday's Problems

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By Alex Planes, The Motley Fool

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Most companies might define a “moonshot” as something huge and transformative. Google , for example, aims for improving something 10 times over its current capabilities. The search giant’s moonshot programs include things like self-driving cars, augmented reality, a connected house, a space elevator… you know, really big ideas. It’s exciting to see private enterprise try to take a leading role again in the pursuit of next-generation technology, but not everyone has Googley ambitions.

Hewlett-Packard , for example, will be unveiling its “Project Moonshot” platform at an April 8 webcast. What is Project Moonshot? Is it a new PC that can fly? A personal robot assistant? An actual moonshot, like Elon Musk’s SpaceX?

No, HP‘s “moonshot” is a scalable server. Way to set a low bar for yourselves, guys.

Wrong direction
The Project Moonshot server, according to Computerworld, is “the culmination of close to one-and-a-half years of HP‘s experimentation in low-power server designs for hyperscale environments,” with hyperscale being industry terminology for a setup that can rapidly scale from a few servers to a few thousand with relatively few issues.

Why does that sound familiar? Maybe because Amazon.com has essentially defined the maximally scalable server with its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), a fully virtual server infrastructure that can be rented out by the hour and scaled across a vast network of Amazon machines, all without the user ever needing to operate servers of their own. Hyperscale also happens to be a pretty good term for Google’s distributed-computing setup, which was originally known as MapReduce before the search giant moved on to even better solutions for solving big problems across lots of smallish, cheapish servers.

HP is building machines for companies that have never heard of cloud computing.

Maybe there are some benefits…
Let’s not be too hasty, though. Computerworld goes on to say that:

With the low-power servers, HP is placing preference on faster delivery of information rather than processing power. [CEO Meg] Whitman last month said that the Project Moonshot platform would use 89% less energy, 94% less space and cost 63% less than a traditional x86 server environment. Traditional x86 server environments use the more power-hungry Intel Xeon or Advanced Micro Devices Opteron processors, which have more processing power and are seen as being more suitable for data-intensive workloads such as databases.

HP, in a case study, said a Moonshot server installation occupying one-half a rack, priced at $1.2 million and drawing 9.9 kilowatts, could replace an installation of 1,600 servers priced at $3.3 million and drawing 91 kilowatts per hour.

That’s not too bad, and it could give Intel investors pause — the chip maker’s fourth-quarter results had little in the way of good news beyond the growth of its data center segment, which develops those Xeons and other server products. It’s not likely to be particularly dangerous, though. In addition to the initial ARM Holdings design, HP also has an Intel Atom-based Moonshot server in the works. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Why I Own Intel Stock

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By Anders Bylund, The Motley Fool

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I’ve been bearish on Intel for years. Smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices always seemed like a credible threat, not to mention a more promising investment for the long term. But times have changed.

Now I own Intel stock and have a thumbs-down CAPScall riding on AMD. How did that happen?

First, AMD made some huge mistakes that effectively erased Intel’s threat from below. AMD‘s momentum in laptop and server chips faded due to a series of rash management changes, surprising product delays, and a spirited response from Intel’s own engineers. The underdog is currently fighting for its financial life, and hardly in a position to kill Intel anymore.

At the same time, the computing market is changing fast, with disastrous results for Intel’s stock. Apple and Google are replacing traditional laptops and desktops with newfangled smartphones and tablets by the millions. Neither Intel nor AMD are big in the mobile computing space, where alternative chip architect ARM Holdings reigns supreme.

As a result, Intel’s top- and bottom-line growth stalled out. Analysts, watching Intel through their usual short-term lenses, think the world is collapsing. That’s why Intel’s stock price plunged 24% over the last year. Meanwhile, the company keeps increasing dividend payouts with relentless regularity, pushing yields up to a sensational 4.2%.

INTC Revenue TTM data by YCharts.

INTC Dividend data by YCharts.

I’m sure that Intel will come roaring back in the long run. For one thing, all these mobile gadgets still need to be served data from increasingly powerful data centers. Nobody can challenge Intel in that market.

For another, the chip giant hasn’t given up on tablets and smartphones. Intel’s mobile products creep ever closer to ARM’s designs in terms of low-power performance, and Google’s Android software was always compatible with this architecture. On the Apple side, Intel may soon start manufacturing Cupertino’s mobile chips as the fruit moves away from longtime partner Samsung.

So this stock is getting the death penalty for a short-term misdemeanor. One or more of the company’s long-term plans will surely keep the sector veteran afloat and thriving for years to come. That’s why I locked in a fantastic entry price and earnings yield by buying Intel stock in December.

Intel shares are fantastically cheap right now, paired with a brilliant dividend yield. And I do believe that rumors of Intel’s death have been greatly overstated. What’s not to love?

When it comes to dominating markets, it doesn’t get much better than Intel’s position in the PC microprocessor arena. However, that market is maturing, and Intel finds itself in a precarious situation longer term if it doesn’t find new avenues for growth. In this premium research report on Intel, our analyst runs through all of the key topics investors should understand about the chip giant. Click here now to learn more.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

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1 Important Way Intel Still Tops Qualcomm

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By Evan Niu, CFA, The Motley Fool

QCOM Market Cap Chart

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No two companies embody the shift of traditional computing to mobile form factors like Intel and Qualcomm . The two chip makers are two sides of a silicon coin, where one dominates the market for PC processors while the other is the go-to vendor for mobile chips.

Late last year, there was a symbolic changing of the guard when Qualcomm’s market cap overtook Intel’s for the first time ever. In the months since, Qualcomm has slightly widened its lead, but both companies are worth right around $110 billion.

QCOM Market Cap data by YCharts.

Intel continues to face headwinds, as the PC market that it relies on remains weak, while Qualcomm’s licensing and chip businesses are both sitting pretty amid global consumer adoption of mobile devices.

However, there’s still one important way in which Intel still tops Qualcomm.

Intel Inside
When the average consumer thinks PC processor, they immediately think Intel. Intel has dominated the market for PC chips for decades, with smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices always playing second fiddle. With such long-standing hegemony comes strong brand recognition.

In Interbrand’s 2012 ranking of the best global brands, Intel ranked No. 8. Qualcomm didn’t even crack the top 100. The consultancy valued Intel’s brand at nearly $40 billion.

While Qualcomm’s technology is found inside nearly every single mobile phone in the world in some form or fashion — either through licensing its intellectual property portfolio or one of its mobile chips (applications processors and baseband modems) — most consumers may not even realize it. Even fewer care.

The market for mobile chips is more competitive than PCs, and there is also a higher level of integration among device OEMs where chips are designed in-house. Qualcomm enjoys a revenue share of over 40% in the applications processor market, but that’s only part of the bigger picture, as companies like Apple and Samsung, the two largest smartphone vendors, are increasingly moving toward in-house chips.

That’s one reason why Qualcomm can’t command the same level of brand recognition as Intel. It’s not as if Hewlett-Packard or Dell ever made their own PC processors.

Snapdragon Inside?
In a recent interview with MIT Technology Review, Qualcomm chief marketing officer Anand Chandrasekher addressed how he hopes to change that. The exec spent 18 years at Intel and only joined Chipzilla’s rival last year.

Part of the problem is that Qualcomm has historically not marketed directly to consumers, something that Intel did from the get-go with its iconic “Intel Inside” campaign that put its name directly on the outside of every PC sporting one of its processors. Smartphones with Qualcomm’s logo directly on them are few and far between, in part because there’s physically less space to put a sticker on, according to Chandrasekher.

Qualcomm now wants to push its Snapdragon brand more aggressively, which is one of its more recognizable products. You may have started to see Snapdragon commercials touting battery life mixed in with your regularly scheduled programming, but …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

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Dataram Reports Fiscal 2013 Third Quarter Financial Results

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Dataram Reports Fiscal 2013 Third Quarter Financial Results

PRINCETON, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Dataram Corporation (NAS: DRAM) today reported its financial results for the three and nine months ended January 31, 2013. Revenues for the three and nine months ended January 31, 2013 were $6.4 million and $21.4 million, respectively, which compares to $8.4 million and $29.1 million for the comparable prior year periods. The Company incurred a net loss for the three months ended January 31, 2013 of $782,000, which compares to a net loss of $4.2 million for the comparable prior year period. For the nine months ended January 31, 2013, the net loss totaled $3.0 million as compared to $6.2 million for the prior comparable period. The Company recorded a charge of approximately $2.4 million in the third quarter of the prior year for impairment of capitalized software development cost. Net loss per share for the three and nine months ended January 31, 2013 was $0.44 and $1.68 as compared to net lost in the prior comparable periods of $2.34 and $3.52. These results reflect a 1 for 6 reverse stock split effective March 15, 2013.

John H. Freeman, Dataram’s president and CEO commented, “The economy and especially the semiconductor industry continued to be soft during most of the Company’s third quarter, due to oversupply of raw materials and reduced customer infrastructure investment. Since the close of our third quarter on January 31, 2013 we have seen an increase in pricing which can positively impact our memory business for the balance of the fiscal year and beyond.”

Mr. Freeman concluded, “In addition to a healthier semiconductor industry, we continue to develop and expand our relationship with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., which together with our RAMDisk agreement and other new opportunities we are currently pursuing should provide new sources of revenue, profit and growth for Dataram in 2013 and beyond. “

ABOUT DATARAM CORPORATION

Founded in 1967, Dataram is a worldwide leader in the manufacture of high-quality computer memory, storage and software products. Our products and services deliver IT infrastructure optimization, dramatically increase application performance and deliver substantial cost savings. Dataram solutions are deployed in 70 Fortune 100 companies and in mission-critical government and defense applications around the world. For more information about Dataram, visit www.dataram.com.

The information provided in this press release may include forward-looking statements relating to future events, such as the development of new products, pricing and availability of raw materials or the …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Is Intel a Cash King?

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By James Royal, The Motley Fool

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As an investor, it pays to follow the cash. If you figure out how a company moves its money, you might eventually find some of that cash flowing into your pockets.

In this series, we’ll highlight four companies in an industry and compare their “cash king margins” over time, trying to determine which has the greatest likelihood of putting cash back in your pocket. After all, a company can pay dividends and buy back stock only after it’s actually received cash — not just when it books those accounting figments known as “profits.”

Today, let’s look at Intel and three of its peers.

The cash king margin
Looking at a company’s cash flow statement can help you determine whether its free cash flow backs up its reported profit. Companies that can create 10% or more free cash flow from their revenue can be powerful compounding machines for your portfolio. A sustained high cash king margin can be a good predictor of long-term stock returns.

To find the cash king margin, divide the free cash flow from the cash flow statement by sales:

Cash king margin = Free cash flow / sales

Let’s take McDonald’s as an example. In the four quarters ending in December, the restaurateur generated $6.97 billion in operating cash flow. It invested about $3.05 billion in property, plant, and equipment. To calculate free cash flow, subtract McDonald’s investment from its operating cash flow. That leaves us with $3.92 billion in free cash flow, which the company can save for future expenditures or distribute to shareholders.

Taking McDonald’s sales of $25.5 billion over the same period, we can figure that the company has a cash king margin of about 14% — a nice high number. In other words, for every dollar of sales, McDonald’s produces $0.14 in free cash.

Ideally, we’d like to see the cash king margin top 10%. The best blue chips can notch numbers greater than 20%, making them true cash dynamos. But some businesses, including many types of retailing, just can’t sustain such margins.

We’re also looking for companies that can consistently increase their margins over time, which indicates that their competitive position is improving. Erratic swings in margins could signal a deteriorating business or perhaps some financial skullduggery. You’ll have to dig deeper to discover the reason.

Four companies
Here are the cash king margins for four industry peers over a few periods.

<td valign="bottom" …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Company

Cash King Margin (TTM)

1 Year Ago

3 Years Ago

5 Years Ago

Intel

14.7%

18.9%

18.9%

19.9%

Applied Materials

18.7%

19.6%

12.0%

20.3%

Advanced Micro Devices

(8.7%)

2.0%

0.1%

(34.1%)

Texas Instruments

22.8%

17.8%
Computers

ARM appoints Segars as CEO after Warren East retires

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Simon Segars will become ARM CEO when Warren East retires July 1, the company said Tuesday.

Segars is currently ARM‘s president. As CEO, he will take charge of a fast-growing company whose processor designs are used in most tablets and smartphones from companies like Apple and Samsung.

Simon Segars

East, 52, is a well-respected leader, credited with pushing ARM out of obscurity into the forefront of mobile devices. Segars, who joined ARM in 1991, will take over a company in the midst of expanding its presence in areas such as embedded devices, taking market share away from another chip designer MIPS.

ARM is also forging ahead into new markets such as servers, which is dominated by x86 chips from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. AMD has adopted ARM processors and plans to put them in servers, and Dell and Hewlett-Packard are offering prototype ARM servers for testing.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

What Will AMD Get Out of Its Latest Investment?

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By Anders Bylund, The Motley Fool

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Advanced Micro Devices isn’t acting like a cash-strapped underdog today. It’s actually doing a fine impression of a venture capitalist.

The chip designer just invested an undisclosed amount of cash in photo editing software maker Aviary. The privately held target specializes in tools for mobile and online picture scrubbing, and this investment was specifically done to support Aviary’s development for Microsoft‘s Windows 8 platform.

To get a sense of how big AMD‘s investment might be, I looked back at Aviary’s funding history. The company collected 7 million from venture capitalists in 2009 and another 5.7 million last summer. In both cases, the investments trickled in from numerous firms. Given this background, I’d be surprised if AMD spent more than half a million here.

Aviary’s new tools will use the graphics processing power of AMD‘s hybrid processors. This wrinkle is said to improve photo filter performance as much as 16-fold over less specialized versions of the same software. This could give AMD a leg up over arch rival Intel in certain niche markets, such as professional graphics editing and enthusiast-level digital photography. You gotta get a foot in the door before you can steal anything of value, like Intel’s crushingly dominant market share in PC chips.

Yes, you can run Aviary on Microsoft Surface. No, it won’t get the AMD-powered speed boost, being designed around a different chipset.

Microsoft won’t complain when a longtime partner and a fresh upstart get together to make its much-reviled Windows 8 environment more attractive, even in a small niche. In fact, Microsoft gave Aviary another helping hand in developing the high-performance toolkit but without pouring money directly into the company.

Likewise, you could see the investment-cum-partnership as a marketing expense for AMD. Not that it’ll have the same obvious impact as a Super Bowl commercial or a series of splashy billboards along I-10, but this angle could be worth a shot.

I won’t say that the recent leaseback deal for AMD’s Austin campus enabled this investment, but it’s always good to have some extra breathing room when laying down cash without a guaranteed return on the investment. 

The mobile revolution is still in its infancy, but with so many different companies, it can be daunting to know how to profit in the space. Fortunately, The Motley Fool has released a free report on mobile named “The Next Trillion-Dollar Revolution” that tells you how. The report describes why this seismic shift will dwarf any other technology revolution seen before it. The report also names the company at the forefront of the trend. You can access this report today by clicking here — it’s free.

The article What Will AMD Get Out of Its Latest Investment? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Anders Bylund owns shares of Intel, but he holds no other position in any company mentioned. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Will AMD's Real Estate Assets Save the Sinking Ship?

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By Anders Bylund, The Motley Fool

AMD Cost of Goods Sold TTM Chart

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Advanced Micro Devices has found a buyer for its campus in Austin, Texas. The final price might not be exactly what the chip designer had in mind, though.

About three months ago, the company announced a plan to sell this property and lease it back from the as-yet unnamed buyer. AMD was hoping for as much as $200 million of fresh cash in its pockets.

AMD‘s Austin campus/piggy bank/lifeline. Image source: AMD‘s corporate blog.

The deal is done. AMD will sell 58 acres of real estate with enough office space for 1,900 employees, and the net price is $164 million. The company will sign a 12-year lease agreement on closing. The buyer is an affiliate of privately held real investment firm Spear Street Capital, based in San Francisco with operations nationwide.

AMD is in chronic need of cash infusions like this one. The company has a bad habit of reporting negative cash flows, and it’s gotten worse lately. Operating costs are running amok, even as revenue started drooping in 2012. The result is weak cash flows and often negative earnings.

AMD Cost of Goods Sold TTM data by YCharts.

This leaseback deal doesn’t give AMD a whole lot of financial breathing room when you consider that it burned $471 million of cash last year. But every little bit helps, I suppose.

But I’m afraid that AMD is arranging the deck chairs on the Andrea Doria. Intel is crushing AMD in almost every way — resources, product performance, mobile ambitions — but even that mighty chip giant is troubled by the rapid rise of tablets and smartphones. AMD is swimming against two tides, namely massive competition and a shrinking core market.

Nokia House, or as Nokia likes to call it, a quick $220 million. Source: WikiMedia user -Majestic-.

This real estate move might even be a warning sign, an emblem of AMD‘s growing desperation. You know who else is doing big leaseback transaction right now? The HMS Titanic (a much larger disaster and more costly than the Andrea Doria) would be Nokia , which missed the boat on modern smartphones and recently sold its Finnish headquarters for $222 million in a similar deal.

Both Nokia and AMD are hoping for a miraculous turnaround, if only we give them some time. I’m afraid both gambits will ultimately fail, which is why I have started underperform CAPScalls on both stocks.

Nokia’s been struggling in a world of Apple and Android smartphone dominance. However, the company has banked its future on its next generation of Windows smartphones. Motley Fool analyst Charly Travers has created a new premium report that digs into both the opportunities and risks facing Nokia to help investors decide if the company is a buy or sell. To get started, simply click here now.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Advanced Micro Devices Sells, Leases Back Campus

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By Rich Smith, The Motley Fool

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Cash-strapped semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices agreed Tuesday to sell its 7171 Southwest Parkway Austin, Texas, campus to real estate investment company Spear Street Capital for approximately $164 million, net of fees and closing costs. AMD isn’t actually moving out of the campus, however, but rather doing a “sale-and-leaseback” transaction in which it monetizes its real estate assets and then pays for the privilege of continuing to occupy them. AMD is entering into a 12-year lease agreement for the premises as part of the transaction.

Closing is slated for March 26, and AMD says it will record the extra cash in its Q1 financial results, due out April 18.

AMD justified the sale by saying that it has a “strategy to reduce investments and capital in non-core parts of the business, including real estate.” And in line with this strategy, the company has entered into similar sale-and-leaseback transactions with its Sunnyvale, Calif., headquarters and its Markham, Ontario, facility as well. 

That said, the company admitted it will take a $50 million loss on the sale. One factor also pertinent to the raising of cash in this manner — AMD currently has $1 billion more debt than cash on its books and was free cash flow negative to the tune of $471 million in 2012.

The article Advanced Micro Devices Sells, Leases Back Campus originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Rich Smith and The Motley Fool have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Here's What This "Market-Destroying" Investor Is Buying

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By Selena Maranjian, The Motley Fool

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Every quarter, many money managers have to disclose what they’ve bought and sold, via “13F” filings. Their latest moves can shine a bright light on smart stock picks.

Today, let’s look at Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management. It’s of great interest to many investors because Greenblatt is the author of the well-regarded bestseller “The Little Book That Beats the Market” and because his system of seeking out companies with high returns on capital and hefty earnings yields. His “Magic Formula” has many fans. As my colleague Morgan Housel has noted, “The simple formula absolutely destroys market averages over time. Greenblatt backs this up with considerable statistical evidence.”

The company’s reportable stock portfolio totaled $1.7 billion in value as of Dec. 31, 2012.

Interesting developments
So what does Gotham’s latest quarterly 13F filing tell us? Here are a few interesting details:

The biggest new holdings are Wells Fargo and Computer Sciences. Other new holdings of interest include American Capital , a business development company (BDC) that’s also involved in mortgage-backed securities. It was recently upgraded by analysts at Zacks who liked its expense and debt reduction and better-than-expected earnings. Some are hoping that the company will reinstate its dividend in the near future, as management has said it would like to do, but my colleague John Maxfield has warned that the company may be too inscrutable for most investors.

Among holdings in which Gotham increased its stake were R.R. Donnelley & Sons and InterDigital . Commercial printer Donnelley provides labels, packaging, and more to the private and public sector. It also prints many thousands of forms for the SEC, and bought Edgar Online. The company took some flack recently when it released Google’s earnings report early last year. Bears worry about its debt and fear a dividend cut. The dividend recently yielded a whopping 10%.

InterDigital may have disappointed investors by not being acquired, but it’s otherwise been busy raking in licensing revenue from its many patents (generally focused on mobile telecommunications), selling many of its patents, and also winning some significant legal battles. Also boding well for the company is its last earnings report, in which it handily topped expectations.

Gotham reduced its stake in lots of companies, including Sirius XM Radio . Heavily shorted, Sirius has faced threats from automakers offering their own entertainment products, but for now they are still offering Sirius radio as well. Growing sales of vehicles is also a plus for Sirius, as is Pandora’s recent decision to start charging its heaviest users. Despite the pessimism of bears, the stock recently hit a 52-week high.

Finally, Gotham’s biggest closed positions included Herbalife and Advanced Micro Devices . Advanced Micro hasn’t been kind to many investors, averaging an annual loss of about 7% over the past 20 years and down 66% over the past year. It’s fighting a struggling PC market and has suffered some heavy free cash flow losses in recent years. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Convergys Corp. Larger Than S&amp;P 500 Component Advanced Micro Devices

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By DividendChannel.com

In the latest look at stocks ordered by largest market capitalization, Russell 3000 component Convergys Corp. (NYSE: CVG) was identified as having a larger market cap than the smaller end of the S&P 500, for example Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD), according to The Online Investor. Click here to find out the top S&P 500 components ordered by average analyst rating » …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets