Chip manufacturing giant Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) has seen the prices of its shares triple within a period of just 5 months following the impressive 2nd quarter returns announced by the company on Thursday evening. The shares which were worth $1.83 only February this year were already going for $6 each by Friday morning following the announcement.
The reported growth is considered a manifestation of the successes being enjoyed by the company through it’s CEO’s elaborate comeback plan. In fact, the company showed its gratitude and confidence in CEO, Lisa Su’s plan by awarding her a salary increase of $75,000 to push her gross earnings to about $950,000. The CEO, who took office just 2 years ago while the company was flailing and seemed to be a lost cause is an electrical engineer who has managed to guide the company back to the path of recovery within record time.
Speaking to the press and shareholders during the announcement, Lisa Su attributed the impressive results to the success that the company has been enjoying within its graphics and video making chips. While a few years ago when the company started investing heavily in these ventures they might have looked like a big gamble, the gamble is now paying off through deals signed with giant gaming companies. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE), which get their gaming chips for Xbox and PlayStation sets respectively from the company. Further growth in these areas is expected in the near future with Microsoft having already announced the launch of its new Xbox S set to be launched during the holiday season next year.
The company CEO however caused investors not to get too excited right away as AMD only expects to record modest returns for the remaining half of 2016. It should be noted that even though the company has recorded steady growth and success on multiple fronts, it is still not completely in the clear. The figures released on Thursday show that it still lost $40 million during the period. This is still on the wrong side of the balance sheet even though it represents an increase of 9% over the $131 million lost just a year ago. Some of the main factors she pointed out as having contributed to the loss include negative cash flows and money lost on operating basis.
