With holiday shopping season more or less in full swing—it looks like a wildly different animal these days thanks to the tacit approval of plans to kill Black Friday this year—minds all over turn to more powerful PCs and the games these platforms can play. AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) is part of the vanguard on this front, and the latest reports suggest that it's not only going to have a lot to offer going forward, but that the analyst community is sitting up and taking notice as well.
Exciting Developments Draw Attention
One of the latest reports out of AMD is that it's managed to achieve the highest percentage of the processor market that it's ever had since 2007. That's no small feat in and of itself; claiming a big share of market is one thing, but claiming levels not seen in over a decade is quite another. Moreover, it's also got the highest share of the client x86 processor market that it's had since 2011, another near-decade achievement.
There's further evidence beyond that that makes it quite clear that AMD is poaching Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) business in a range of categories, especially in the high-end PC market. What's more, with the holidays coming up, and AMD about to release a major new processor subclass in the Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 processor, AMD has an even better chance to land further market share. Intel won't really have a counter to the Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 until it rolls out the Rocket Lake processor, and Rocket Lake won't hit shelves until the first quarter of 2021 at last report.
Disasters await other competitors as well, quite possibly. NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) has trouble on its hands from AMD as well. While AMD is fighting hard with its new processor, it's also poised to do serious damage in the video card market as well. Benchmark testing has been revealed for the Radeon RX 6800 XT, and by all reports, it's going to do a number on the NVIDIA product line. Not only does it surpass the comparably-priced RTX 3080, reports noted, it also beats the GeForce RTX 3090, priced better than double the RX 6800 XT.
Analysts Taking Notice As Well
All of that is welcome news for AMD investors. But that by itself might not be enough to sway potential investors considering committing cash to the company's efforts. That's what makes the response from the analyst community so noteworthy, as based on our latest research. Just today, Goldman Sachs bumped up its entire picture, elevating the company from “neutral” to “buy” and raising the price target from $84 to $96. Reports suggest that Goldman Sachs boosted that outlook on the back of several factors, including its current price, the gains it's made in various markets, and its basic fundamentals.
It certainly doesn't hurt that there are plenty of other analysts calling AMD a buy; the company currently has one “sell” rating, 12 “hold” and 23 “buy” ratings. That's up three “buy” ratings from just last month, and with two fewer “hold” ratings. The price target has been trending upward for the last six months, currently sitting at $75.68, which is actually lower than where the stock currently sells. With our latest research referring to AMD as both a “trending stock” and an “idea engine,” it's easy to see where the attraction for this stock is.
Shovels in a Gold—and Silver—Rush
There's no doubt that video games are enjoying a renaissance the like of which they haven't seen in quite some time. With a pandemic keeping people in their homes for much of the first half of 2020, and options comparatively limited for the second half, video games still look like an attractive proposition. Throw in a new console generation and a host of new titles still to come with the end of this year, and the reason to have a powerful new PC on hand only grow.
It's not just gaming, of course, that keeps the need for high-end hardware aloft. The growing work-from-home movement all but requires PCs in the home, of one stripe or another, and that's going to fuel demand as well. AMD is left in the blessed position of not only selling shovels in a gold rush, but also selling shovels in a silver rush as well. The fact that AMD's hardware is only getting better, and looking to beat its competition, only makes the picture more attractive for AMD.
Companies in This Article:
