AMD says sales this quarter will top Street by $100 million

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices leaped 8 percent in premarket trade Wednesday after reporting strong guidance and better-than-expected earnings.

The chipmaker said late Tuesday it expects third-quarter revenue to increase 15 percent year over year, implying $1.5 billion in sales, about $100 million more than what analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected.

AMD also raised the percentage range for its annual revenue growth forecast from the low teens to the mid to high teens.

AMD shares two-day performance (extended hours trade)

Source: FactSet

The company reported second-quarter earnings per share of 2 cents, versus expectations the company would break even for the quarter. AMD posted quarterly revenue of $1.22 billion, topping the $1.16 billion estimate.

A surge in the price of digital currencies has driven demand for AMD’s graphics cards for mining the cryptocurrencies, the company said in June. Some models were sold out at major computer hardware retailers then.

The stock is up 24 percent this year and up 102 percent over the last 12 months.

Another graphics card manufacturer, Nvidia, is up 55 percent this year and 192 percent over the last 12 months as the 7th best performer in the S&P 500 this year.

— CNBC’s Christine Wang and Tae Kim contributed to this report.