I knew about AMD, but finally added them to my watch list in 2018. AMD caught everyone by surprise, including Wall Street in 2018 when the company added more than $20 billion in market value in 2018 with the stock price appreciating more than 200% that same year. That return in 2018 was the best performer in the S&P 500 this year, even beating out Nividia in the process.
The person at the top within AMD is Lisa Su who was appointed president and CEO of AMD in October 2014, after joining the company in 2012 and holding roles such as senior vice president of AMD's global business units and chief operating officer.
When Lisa took over AMD, she drafted a memo and at her first town hall meeting discussed the company’s objectives: To build great products, deepen customer relationships, and simplify everything we do.
Lisa Su is a Taiwanese-American business executive and electrical engineer, and the CEO and president of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Early in her career, Su worked at Texas Instruments, IBM, and Freescale Semiconductor in engineering and management positions.
She was named Executive of the Year by EE Times in 2014 and one of the World's Greatest Leaders in 2017 by Fortune.
The number of women running Fortune 500 companies has hit an all-time record of 37.
Even though the number of female CEOs is up, that's still only 7.4% of the Fortune 500 ranked businesses compiled annually by the magazine.
Last year there were 33, which was up from 24 from 2018. And to really put things in perspective, 20 years ago there were only two female-led companies, according to Fortune.
A study last year from S&P Global Market Intelligence found that public companies with female CEOs or CFOs often were more profitable and had better stock price performance.
That study suggests that boards held the female CEOs and CFOs to a higher standard than the men before hiring them.
So it bought me great pleasure yesterday when a CNN article announced that Lisa was the highest-paid CEO of a company in the S&P 500 last year according to the Associated Press and executive compensation analysis firm Equilar. What’s even more impressive or said, pending your prospective is she is the first woman to ever take the number #1 spot. Su earned a total of $58.5 million in 2019 -- almost $13 million more than the next-highest paid CEO, Discovery Inc's David Zaslav, who earned $45.8 million.
Lisa also has this 5% rule which means to get just a little better the next time. And I think that’s the reason why AMD has gain so much ground on the competition. Let me give you one quick example.
Intel continues to lead the market for desktop CPUs, but AMD has incrementally increased their share in the market. In November, AMD had 20% of the market vs. 16% in April of 2018. And in late April, AMD said it stole more market share from Intel for the 10th consecutive quarter and had more than 50% share of high-end CPU sales globally.
As long as Lisa is in charge, I think AMD has a bright future. So Lisa I salute you for the women and the minorities of the world. In terms of the stock, price is range bound now, but as AMD continues to take market share, the price of the stock should continue higher.
This post is my personal opinion. I’m not a financial advisor, this isn't financial advice. Do your own research before making investment decisions.
