Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD, +6.65% shares rallied to a nearly 12-year high Thursday after the Wall Street analyst with the highest price target on the stock hiked his target even higher following a meeting with executives. AMD shares touched an intraday high of $21.94, their highest price since December 2006, and were last up 3.9% at $21.72 on heavy volume. Shares are trading higher for a fifth day in a row for a total gain of nearly 12%. On Thursday, Rosenblatt Securities analyst Hans Mosesmann, who has a buy on AMD, hiked his price target on the stock to $30 from $27 following two days of meeting with AMD execs. The next highest price target on the stock is $26 from Northland Securities analyst Gus Richard, according to FactSet. Mosesmann said he was "impressed by the deep dives long-focused investors are doing in the name after many years of disregard" and because "of our renewed conviction post-meetings of a multi-year double digit growth profile for AMD." The analyst said AMD can once again hope to command about 25% of the x86 PC market like it did in 2006, but this time with a "top to bottom portfolio" and a growing manufacturing process advantage to Intel Corp. INTC, -0.15% In a note, Mosesmann said he believes "AMD has a multi-year advantage vs. Intel" and a "6-month plus advantage vs. Nvidia" when it comes to graphics processing units for the data center. Intel shares were down 0.3% while Nvidia shares were up 2%, and the PHLX Semiconductor Index SOX, +0.12% was up 0.4% against the S&P 500 Index's SPX, -0.17% 0.1% decline. Of the 32 analysts who cover AMD, 13 have buy or overweight ratings, 14 have hold ratings, and five have sell ratings, along with an average target price of $17.38.
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