Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD) share slid by 11 cents or 4.15% to $2.54 in the morning session after Fitch ratings downgraded the company stock from “B” to “CCC.”
Advanced Micro Devices reported a growing fourth-quarter loss earlier this month $473 million and in October 2012 announced it planned to restructure the company and cut 15 percent of its workforce. In November 2012 Advanced Micro Devices said it cut 400 jobs in Austin.
Fitch expects Advanced Micro Device’s profits to continue to drop in 2013.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) share fell by 82 cents or 2.60% to $30.44 in the morning session after the company announced its plan to go into investment mode in the coming year.
Citigroup analyst Neil Doshi downgraded the stock to neutral from buy and said “We view Facebook as a core long-term ‘Net stock,” “But with plans to invest heavily in the biz in 2013, and little expected contribution from new initiatives like Gifts or Graph Search, we don’t see any near-term catalysts for the stock. And Mobile Ads appear to be cannibalizing Desktop, which further concerns us.”
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan also cited Facebook’s “heavy investment phase” in cutting the stock’s rating to hold from buy.
BMO Capital’s Daniel Salmon cut his rating to market perform.
“We thought the quarter was perfectly fine,” he wrote. “However, we don’t yet have the thesis to raise our target into the mid- to high-$30s.”
Ben Schachter of Macquarie Equities kept an outperform rating, even as he wrote that Facebook’s management “clearly believes that it must significantly and quickly ramp investments in R&D capabilities as it navigates an increasingly complex competitive environment.”
Topeka Capital’s Victor Anthony argued in a note that Facebook “will continue to be one of the primary beneficiaries of the secular ad shift from traditional media to the Internet/mobile.”
“The company reiterated its intent to drive future growth by investing in the business, and does not intend to manage to a target margin,” Michael Pachter of Wedbush wrote. “We believe the decision is appropriate, as the immense mobile advertising opportunity remains largely unclaimed.”