Melius Research moved to the sidelines on Advanced Micro Devices , but there isn’t any elephant in the room with this call. Analyst Ben Reitzes downgraded shares of the semiconductor stock to hold from buy. Reitzes also cut his two-year price target by $31 to $129, which now suggests shares can rise 12.2% over Monday’s close. Reitzes’ call comes a day after the stock dropped more than 6%, part of a global tech sell-off spurred by the emergence of an artificial intelligence model from Chinese startup DeepSeek. Information about the timeframe and resources for DeepSeek’s product raised concern about the amount of spending on AI and data centers happening in the U.S., as well as if the country were actually a leader in the sector. But “believe it or not, it’s not due to DeepSeek,” Reitzes said of his downgrade. “We should have done this 10 months ago after an epic run for AMD,” he said, noting shares were at one point up more than 40% during the first quarter of 2024. Shares finished 2024 down just over 18%. AMD 1Y mountain AMD, 1-year Reitzes said he is “cautious” on the company’s x86 server business and its PC chip market. There is also reason for worry longer term given the potential for Nvidia to “come for them” in these markets, he added. With the downgrade, Reitzes left the majority on Wall Street. Most analysts polled by LSEG have buy-equivalent ratings on the stock. Following Monday’s slide, the stock is now down more than 4% for 2025.
