AMD: A big mess right now

More

Poor Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD). The company's stock has been a terrible performer as of late, and the chip maker delivered another batch of bad news to shareholders Monday. According to the following article, AMD intends on eliminating 10% of its work force -- this translates to about 1,800 positions.


Also, business is pretty weak; AMD announced that its sales for the recent quarter would come in around 15% lighter than what was reported last year at this time. Adding insult to injury, the top line missed the expectations of analysts; Wall Street was looking for approximately $1.6 billion in net sales -- AMD thinks it will deliver $1.5 billion.

Make no mistake, AMD is suffering. As the article makes clear, the chip maker is having a hard time generating profits. AMD will be trying its best, I'm sure, to restructure its operations so that it will once again be a force to be reckoned with in the near future. But how near is near?

AMD has a 52-week range that starts at $5.31 and ends at $16.19. It closed Monday at $6.34. Considering that the jury is out on how tech will be doing the next several months, I'm not sure I'd want to own such a weak player as AMD right now. Sure, one might bottom-fish with it, but this seems to be a case where the stock-chart technicals accurately reflect the business fundamentals.

Now, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) has also been having problems with its chip-making operations, but if I had to own one or the other, I would definitely take my chances with that stock -- Intel is a great brand in this space, and I feel this company will rebound from a restructuring in a better shape than AMD will.

Of course, if you want to play quality tech, who says you have just these two to choose from? There's always that blue-chip tech entity Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). I'm still keeping my eye on that one (who isn't; just wish that whole Yahoo! thing would get resolved). To sum up, though, I'll let other traders play around with AMD while I stay away.

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any of the companies mentioned; positions can change at any time.

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA+150.2510,058.64
NASDAQ+24.822,150.87
S&P 500+13.781,070.52

Last updated: February 10, 2010: 02:29 AM

Hot Stocks

DailyFinance Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

    BioHealth Investor Headlines

    WalletPop Headlines

    My Portfolios

    Track your stocks here!

    Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

    BloggingStocks Partners

    More from AOL Money & Finance

    WalletPop Headlines