Beltway Bet: Advanced Micro Devices

Washington, D.C. – Advanced Micro Devices, the Sunnyvale, Calif., semiconductor concern, is in town this week for FOSE, an annual public-sector technology trade show that attracts 20,000 buyers, sellers and hanger-ons to the nation’s capital. At exhibition booths, breakfast speeches and in its own sponsored meeting room, AMD is making its case before the Beltway crowd.

In doing so, AMD (nyse: AMD – news – people ) certainly can’t tout its recent stock market performance. The company’s shares have slumped 62% from a 52-week high, versus a 14% decline in the S&P 500 index. At six bucks, AMD goes for 0.6 times sales–less than one-fifth the 3.3 price-to-sales multiple for shares of bigger rival Intel (nasdaq: INTC – news – people ).

AMD shareholders have been suffering for some time; two years ago the stock stood at $43. Will it rebound to those heights? We haven’t a clue. But we can say that AMD’s success in the public sector provides some support for the case made by AMD bulls.

Full story at Forbes.com