Advanced Micro Devices jumps as Piper Sandler upgrades, citing overblown worries
Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) shares rose early on Tuesday after investment firm Piper Sandler upgraded the semiconductor company, noting that some of its fears about the company have not "played out as expected."
Analyst Harsh Kumar upgraded AMD (AMD) to overweight from neutral and raised the per-share price target to $140 from $90, noting that a slowing PC market and the company's acquisition of Xilinx being a drag on earnings have not impacted the company. 
Kumar also noted that AMD (AMD) has several "mid-to-long-term catalysts," including strong server trends, strong semi-custom trends, commercial PC growth, Xilinx adding to earnings and the company's investor day early next month.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) shares gained nearly 4% to $97.79 in premarket trading on Tuesday. 
"From our perspective, the companyâs core businesses are running really well and continue to benefit from secular trends," Kumar wrote in a note to clients, adding that AMD (AMD) is gaining market share in the broader PC market, with "very strong traction in the commercial market." 
In addition, Kumar noted that he is seeing increased cadence of server chips and further inroads at hyperscalers like Meta Platforms (FB), Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL) and others, as well as "cloud and enterprise tailwinds as key drivers to continued share gains."
In addition, AMD's (AMD) graphics cards appear to be gaining traction from a consumer and data center perspective, going up against industry leader Nvidia (NVDA), Kumar explained.
Concerning Xilinx, Kumar noted that the recent acquisition looks as if it is "making a solid contribution out of the gate, with three quarters of 20%+ growth," with AMD's (AMD) recent guidance implying 20% or greater growth for Xilinx for the rest of the year. 
Earlier this month, Citi said AMD (AMD) and Intel (INTC) could be impacted by a weakened PC market, as notebook shipments came in below estimates for the fourth month in a row.