AMD's latest quarterly earnings no surprise

As chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) released its fourth-quarter financial results today at 5pm EST, the company's latest numbers came as no surprise to those listening to the results live. The second-largest chipmaker behind Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) said that it ended up with a fourth-quarter loss due to acquisition-related charges and a continuing price war -- and that price war took a heavy toll on AMD's margins (like it always does).

AMD had a net loss of $574 million, or $1.08 a share, in the fourth quarter, and attributed $1.04 of the loss to its recent acquisition of graphics chipmaker Allegheny Technologies (NYSE:ATI). With the estimation being EPS of $0.10 -- and with AMD delivering $0.04 after the ATI deal was taken out -- investors were shaken a bit. As a result, AMD shares slipped $0.06 to sit around the $17.45 mark in after-hours trading.

But, AMD's sales in the fourth quarter were about in line with analysts' reduced expectations, as AMD delivered sales of $1.77 billion for the quarter with estimates before the announcement being $1.73 billion.

As BusinessWeek and BloggingStocks previewed previously, AMD did not have a good quarter in terms of profits even though sales were up a decent amount. But, like I always say, sales are meaningless if the profits aren't there. After all, business is about making money -- not just sales.

Also check out some other earnings reports that we're following, and let us know your thoughts on earnings expectations.