Hey Fool, take a chill pill. Kick back with a cold libation and ponder the mysteries of the universe. Your itchy trigger finger doesn't have to click on that "Buy Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD)" button right this second. The stock will stay obscenely cheap for at least a few more weeks.

When even mighty Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) reported horrible sales and disappointing earnings a week ago, you had to figure that AMD wouldn't be in much better shape. Well, the numbers are in and, yeah, they're not pretty.

Non-GAAP losses  of $0.69 per share in the fourth quarter on $1.16 billion of GAAP revenue compare badly to the $0.16 pro forma loss per share and $1.74 billion in sales a year earlier. Using the GAAP earnings gives an even bleaker picture, a loss of $2.34 a share in the last quarter.

However, the results are strong enough that you need to keep this stock in your research notebook. Like half of Silicon Valley, AMD is stepping up layoffs and selling off extraneous business units in order to stabilize its balance sheet. Broadcom (NASDAQ:BRCM) took digital TV processors off AMD's hands for a cool $141 million last year, and QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM) paid $65 million for AMD's handheld gadget technologies.

Combined with the spin-out of the company's manufacturing operations, which is expected to close in mid-February after a quick shareholder vote, these cost-cutting moves should rebalance AMD a bit. By mid-year, the breakeven point is expected to sit at $1.3 billion, meaning that quarterly revenue above that mark will bring in actual profits. But CEO Dirk Meyer is quick to add that the breakeven goal remarks "are not intended to forecast where revenue is going to be over the course of the next two quarters," so we really shouldn't expect profits that quickly.

Getting above that magic line won't be easy, even after tugging it down a few notches from the current $1.5 billion mark.

But AMD's product portfolio -- with great graphics chips and the delicious 45-nanometer Shanghai CPUs -- hasn't looked this good since the heyday of the Athlon 64, when AMD was dictating new features to Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) rather than waiting for Intel to lead the way. And this time, Intel can't afford an all-out price war -- last week's price cuts were just standard business in this ever-cheaper product class.

The stock is priced as if AMD were going belly up imminently, and that is clearly not the case. Indeed, CFO Bob Rivet says that he "will have excess cash over the $800 million to $1 billion comfort zone" after the foundry deal closes. "Which," he says,"is nice to have in this environment."

No kidding. The only way for AMD today is up, though that move might take a while.

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