According to the report, AMD revenue for 2018 fiscal year is at $6.48 billion, 38 percent gross margin, operating income of $451 million, net income of $337 million and EPS of $0.32. Non-GAAP figures were at $633 for operating income, $514 million for net income, and EPS of $0.46. Compared to the last year, revenue was up by 23 percent, with gross margin up by 4 percent, operating income up by $324 million, net income up from a loss of $33 million to $370 million, and earning per share (EPS) up by $0.35.
As far as Q4 2018 goes, AMD reported revenue of $1.42 billion, gross margin of 38 percent, operating income of $28 million, net income of $38 million, and EPS of $0.04. While these were generally down compared to the last quarter, they were significantly better compared to the same quarter last year.
AMD says that revenue was mainly driven by its Computing and Graphics segment, and a 23 percent rise is definitely a good result. With gross margin now sitting at 39 percent, AMD can breathe easily, and according to the company, it was all about its new Ryzen, EPYC, and Radeon products.
The drop in revenue compared to the last quarter was due to lower revenue from the Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment, but its Computing and Graphics segment is still driving the company forward, with revenue of $986 million, up by nine percent compared to the last year, and up by five percent compared to the previous quarter, mostly pushed forward by Ryzen sales, as well as datacenter GPUs.
AMD also reported that its Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment had revenue of $433 million, and while being flat compared to the last year, it did drop by 39 percent compared to the previous quarter, mostly due to seasonally lower semi-custom sales. AMD was keen to note it was partially offset by strong EPYC datacenter processor sales, which is a good sign of things to come.
AMD also reiterated its wafer supply agreement update with Globalfoundries, saying that it will continue to be a long-term strategic partner for AMD for the 12nm node, giving AMD "full flexibility for wafer purchases from any foundry at the 7nm node and beyond without any one-time payments or royalties".
“In 2018 we delivered our second straight year of significant revenue growth, market share gains, expanded gross margin and improved profitability based on our high-performance products. Importantly, we more than doubled our EPYC processor shipments sequentially and delivered record GPU datacenter revenue in the quarter,” said Dr. Lisa Su, AMD president and CEO. “Despite near-term graphics headwinds, 2019 is shaping up to be another exciting year driven by the launch of our broadest and most competitive product portfolio ever with our next-generation 7nm Ryzen, Radeon, and EPYC products.”
In its next Q1 2019 financial report, AMD expects revenue of $1.25 billion, which is a significant drop of around 12 percent, mostly attributed to seasonally lower sales and a "soft graphics channel", as well as the absence of blockchain-related GPU revenue, excess channel inventory, and lower memory sales in the graphics market. This could be somewhat offset by higher Ryzen, EPYC, and Radeon datacenter GPU product sales, so hopefully, an upcoming quarter could end up to be better than AMD expects.
AMD delivered a great CES 2019 keynote showing a strong roadmap on both the client and server sides, and while some had doubts, it is obvious that the company is back on track, and hopefully, it will be able to continue to deliver.
