AMD's stock has closed at record-breaking prices for the last five days following its most recent earnings report, which revealed that quarterly sales reached an all-time high of $3.85 billion in 2Q21, and chief executive Lisa Su's commitment to shipping next-gen processors heading into 2022 despite the ongoing chip shortage.
Yahoo Finance data showed that AMD's stock closed at a record $97.93 on July 28, and set another record at $112.56 on August 3. The price has continued to rise so far today: It peaked at $118.82 this morning and settled at roughly $119 at the time of writing. The tool still marks the stock as undervalued, too, and predicts strong long-term performance.
The market appeared to be responding to AMD's strong earnings in the second quarter. The highlight was the revelation that its sales had nearly doubled year-over-year despite the challenges imposed by the coronavirus pandemic and the global chip shortage that's left many companies unable to satisfy demand for their wares.
AMD's rising share price could also have benefitted from Intel's repeated warnings that the consumer chip shortage would continue into the third quarter. The company said in its most recent earnings call that margins have suffered as supply chain costs have risen because it hasn't passed those increases on to consumers.
Intel continues to lead in terms of market share, especially when it comes to consumer processors, but AMD has eaten away at the high-value data center business with its EPYC lineup. That increased competition might persuade some investors that AMD can truly challenge Intel's dominance in at least one sector.
MarketWatch noted that investors could also have been responding to a Bloomberg report claiming UK regulators would block Nvidia's acquisition of Arm over national security concerns. That could make it more difficult for the company to extend its lead in the graphics market to the other sectors in which it competes with AMD.
