AMD Beats Analysts' Expectations for 2010

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Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) reported fourth quarter revenues of $1.65 billion Thursday, a two percent increase from last quarter and flat year-over-year, after accounting for other factors such as 2009’s $1.24 billion anti-trust settlement payment from Intel.

For the quarter ended Dec. 25, AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced it had GAAP net income of $375 million, earnings per share (EPS) of $0.50, and operating income of $413 million, the company said in a statement.

Using non-GAAP accounting, however, AMD delivered $106 million in net income, EPS of $0.14, and $141 million in operating profit.

For 2010 overall, AMD delivered $6.49 billion in revenues, a 20 percent gain from 2009, and annual EPS of $0.64. Using non-GAAP accounting, net income came in at $360 million, with EPS $0.49, and operating income of $553 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected AMD to deliver non-GAAP quarterly EPS of $0.11 and annual EPS of $0.46, with estimated revenues for the quarter at $1.63 billion and $6.48 billion for the year.

AMD’s 2010 performance was a significant change from the same time last year, when AMD brought in revenues of $1.646 billion for the quarter and $5.403 billion for the year, with EPS of $1.52 and operating income of $1.288 billion.

AMD reported its fourth quarter and year-end numbers under somewhat of a cloud posed by the sudden departure of AMD’s CEO Dirk Meyer just ten days ago, following differences with the company’s board.

The board appointed CFO Thomas Seifert to fill in as interim CEO.

During a call with financial analysts following the close of the markets Thursday, Seifert declined to give any additional information regarding what they called a “mutual” agreement on Meyer’s resignation.

“I’m not going to go into details,” Seifert said when an analyst asked him about rumors that the impasse with the board had to do with differences as to whether the company should focus more on processors for the burgeoning tablet computing and mobile devices markets.

“This was not a looking behind decision but [rather] a looking forward decision, Seifert added.

Last week, arch rival Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) reported record sales for its fiscal year of $43.6 billion and earnings of $11.7 billion.

Meanwhile, AMD began shipping the first of its Fusion processors during the quarter. The chips combine both a CPU and a graphics processor on the same die, which the firm refers to as an “accelerated processing unit” or APU.

“In November 2010, we started shipping the first APU-enabled Brazos platform, for notebook and desktop systems. In total, we shipped 1.3 million platforms in the fourth quarter,” Seifert said in a commentary released with the earnings statement.

As for what’s ahead, Seifert said in his commentary that the current quarter is likely to be either flat or down slightly from last quarter.

Investors took the announcement in stride.

AMD’s stock was selling down $0.01 at $8.01in after hours trading a .12 percent change.

Stuart J. Johnston is a contributing writer at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @stuartj1000.