Why Advanced Micro Devices Stock Gained 10% in September

Source The Motley Fool

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) were moving higher last month as the result of a number of news items, the Federal Reserve's 50-basis-point cut, and a general tailwind in the semiconductor sector.

According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, the stock finished the month up 10%. As you can see from the chart below, the stock's movement mirrored that of the VanEck Semiconductor ETF, but it gained at a higher rate, showing that while it was subject to the same trends as its industry, it was able to outperform it.AMD Chart

AMD data by YCharts

AMD gets an edge

AMD has generally been a winner in the AI boom, though the company is only just starting to assert itself as a key supplier with its MI300 data center GPU, which saw strong growth in the second quarter.

In September, several small news items made the stock a winner.

First, AMD announced its "Advancing AI 2024" event, scheduled for Oct. 10. The company plans to show off its next-generation AMD Instinct accelerators and fifth-gen AMD Epyc server processors.

It's no secret that artificial intelligence (AI) has taken center stage in the chip sector, and investors are paying close attention to AMD's AI product offering. The stock jumped 5% on Sept. 11 on high volume following that announcement.

Cathie Wood's Ark Invest also added to its AMD holdings, purchasing 45,500 shares that week, a positive sign for investors who closely follow her moves.

The following week, Reuters reported a victory over Intel to design a key chip for Sony's PlayStation 6, and Citigroup reiterated AMD as a top AI pick. AMD also got a boost on the Fed's rate cut, gaining 4.5% on Sept. 19, along with a broader upswing in the market.

Finally, AMD scored another win toward the end of the month as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure said it would use AMD's Instinct MI300X accelerators, a key win for the new chip, which competes with Nvidia's AI accelerators.

A semiconductor being made.

Image source: Getty Images.

What's next for AMD?

All eyes will be on the Oct. 10 AI presentation, and the stock is likely to move on the news. Investors will be expecting some new products that can move the needle for AMD, especially as it looks best positioned to challenge Nvidia in the data center GPU market.

If AMD can execute on that opportunity, the stock could have a lot of room to run from here.

Should you invest $1,000 in Advanced Micro Devices right now?

Before you buy stock in Advanced Micro Devices, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Advanced Micro Devices wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $752,838!*

Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of September 30, 2024

Jeremy Bowman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Disclaimer: For information purposes only. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
placeholder
The Fed will sit still on October 28 — but 100 of 100 economists now expect a December hikeA Reuters poll run October 16-20 found 94 of 100 economists expecting the Fed to hold at 3.75-4.00% on October 28 — and all 100 expecting a hike in December, against less than half a month earlier. The market is close to the same price, with CME FedWatch at roughly 17% for October and 82.8% for December. With the Fed in blackout since October 17, here are the five dates that decide the rest of the year, what each one is priced for, and the two directions each can take.
Author  Irene Q.
Oct 22, Thu
A Reuters poll run October 16-20 found 94 of 100 economists expecting the Fed to hold at 3.75-4.00% on October 28 — and all 100 expecting a hike in December, against less than half a month earlier. The market is close to the same price, with CME FedWatch at roughly 17% for October and 82.8% for December. With the Fed in blackout since October 17, here are the five dates that decide the rest of the year, what each one is priced for, and the two directions each can take.
placeholder
Big Tech's $800 billion AI bill faces its first real test — free cash flow is the judgeAlphabet and Microsoft report after the close on October 28, Amazon on October 29, with hyperscaler AI capex running near $800 billion a year. Meta's negative free cash flow and 9.40% drop on October 22 was the warning; this week's prints decide whether cloud growth and backlog can pay for the buildout. Here are the consensus numbers, the free-cash-flow table and the two-sided test.
Author  Irene Q.
Oct 26, Mon
Alphabet and Microsoft report after the close on October 28, Amazon on October 29, with hyperscaler AI capex running near $800 billion a year. Meta's negative free cash flow and 9.40% drop on October 22 was the warning; this week's prints decide whether cloud growth and backlog can pay for the buildout. Here are the consensus numbers, the free-cash-flow table and the two-sided test.
placeholder
Tesla jumps 5% as Barclays puts a $450 target on the SpaceX merger — the chart was already pointing to 431Tesla closed at $391.62 on October 26, up 5.21%, after Barclays upgraded the stock to Overweight and lifted its target to $450 from $370, citing a sharp inflection in Robotaxi miles and a potential SpaceX merger. The move also completed a double bottom at $345.88 and $349.33, with a neckline at $388.56 and a measured target of $431.24. Here is what the upgrade actually says, why the chart and the analyst now point the same way, and what would break the target.
Author  Irene Q.
Yesterday 05: 30
Tesla closed at $391.62 on October 26, up 5.21%, after Barclays upgraded the stock to Overweight and lifted its target to $450 from $370, citing a sharp inflection in Robotaxi miles and a potential SpaceX merger. The move also completed a double bottom at $345.88 and $349.33, with a neckline at $388.56 and a measured target of $431.24. Here is what the upgrade actually says, why the chart and the analyst now point the same way, and what would break the target.
placeholder
Anthropic files for a $2 trillion IPO — the $80.7 billion loss is the decoy, the $450 billion compute bill is the riskAnthropic publicly filed its S-1 on October 26, revealing $16.29 billion of first-half revenue (+1,304% year over year) and a $80.7 billion net loss — of which $72.4 billion is a non-cash convertible-note charge. The real number is the $450 billion of signed, mostly non-cancelable compute commitments. Here is what the filing says, why NVDA, ARM and MU are the tradeable read-through, and the conditions that decide whether the AI trade passes its first public valuation test.
Author  Irene Q.
Yesterday 06: 02
Anthropic publicly filed its S-1 on October 26, revealing $16.29 billion of first-half revenue (+1,304% year over year) and a $80.7 billion net loss — of which $72.4 billion is a non-cash convertible-note charge. The real number is the $450 billion of signed, mostly non-cancelable compute commitments. Here is what the filing says, why NVDA, ARM and MU are the tradeable read-through, and the conditions that decide whether the AI trade passes its first public valuation test.
placeholder
Fed October Rate Decision Preview: Rate Hike Pause Has Become Consensus, How Will US Stocks, Dollar, and Gold React?The Federal Reserve will announce its October interest rate decision at 14:00 Eastern Time on October 28, and Fed Chair Warsh will hold a press conference at 14:30. Markets currently wide
Author  TradingKey
Yesterday 10: 21
The Federal Reserve will announce its October interest rate decision at 14:00 Eastern Time on October 28, and Fed Chair Warsh will hold a press conference at 14:30. Markets currently wide
goTop
quote