As the second half of the year approaches, the stock market presents another opportunity to get involved, and growth equities remain among the most attractive places to start.
Recently, Zacks.com users have been paying close attention to Advanced Micro (AMD). This makes it worthwhile to examine what the stock has in store.
[00:00:04] Doug McIntyre: So Lee, AMD, I mean, if you said describe 'em, they're the number two AI chip company.
While members of Congress are increasingly involved in various stock purchases, data indicates they are particularly focused on two equities.
I am upgrading Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. to a buy as its valuation is now attractive, trading at a discount to historical averages and with a low PEG ratio. AMD's AI opportunities are expanding, highlighted by a $10B Saudi joint venture and growing demand from sovereign nations for AI infrastructure. The company continues to gain CPU market share from Intel, and the ZT Systems acquisition strengthens its data center competitiveness against Nvidia.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. appears to be an excellent platform for selling put options, given the stock's volatility and the company's underlying quality. The company continues to make progress on capturing the data center opportunity, and shares now trade in an attractive range. We're re-iterating our Buy rating on AMD stock, and recommending a short put trade for income hungry investors.
AMD remains attractively valued, especially compared to Nvidia, with lower forward P/E ratios and strong upside potential. AI tailwinds and management's effective growth strategy continue to support AMD's long-term prospects and partnership expansion. Wall Street forecasts robust EPS and free cash flow growth for AMD, projecting 20%+ average bottom-line growth by 2029.
I am initiating AMD with a Strong Buy and a $175–$200 price target, as the bottom is in and fundamentals are underappreciated. AMD's strategic pivot to AI inference, ZT Systems acquisition, and ROCm ecosystem position it for significant market share gains against Nvidia. Technical analysis confirms a major trend reversal, with strong volume and structural breakouts suggesting the start of a new uptrend cycle.
AMD's chiplet architecture and MI300X GPU give it a structural edge in AI hardware, especially for inference and memory-intensive tasks. The Xilinx acquisition positions AMD as a leader in edge AI and adaptive computing, offering a broader, more open platform than Nvidia. Strong data center and adaptive segment growth is driving a profitable financial flywheel, funding further innovation and strategic acquisitions.
AMD is seen as an also-ran in the market for AI chips. But a BofA analyst thinks the company can still capture meaningful opportunity there.
AMD remains a viable rebound investing story, thanks to its overly discounted valuations, robust Free Cash Flow generation, and healthy balance sheet. This is on top of its growing x86 market share, with it already accretive to its client/ data center CPU sales at double digits YoY growth. We are likely to see improved data center sales growth profile from H2'25 onwards as well, thanks to the launch of its Instinct data center GPUs ahead.
Elon Musk says xAI expects to keep buying GPUs from Nvidia and AMD