AMD still off sharply as downgrades arrive; Nvidia also lower

• In addition to offering soft Q3 guidance, AMD (AMD -17.5%) stated on its CC (transcript) its expects Q3 to be this year's "peak quarter" for console APU shipments.
• FBR, which has cut shares to Market Perform, calls this "most surprising," given console APU shipments rose sharply in Q4 last year (as the Xbox One/PS4 launched).
• It thinks AMD might benefit down the line from a design win for Nintendo's next-gen 3DS, but only sees this boosting EPS by $0.04. The firm is also concerned inventory rose 10% Q/Q to a new all-time high.
• When pressed in the Q&A about what his console remarks imply for Q4 sales, CEO Rory Read declined to offer a forecast. He did, however, state PC-related sales are expected to rise in Q4 (in-line with normal seasonality).
• BofA/Merrill, which has cut shares to Underperform, argues AMD's PC CPU/GPU ops (have seen share losses to Intel/Nvidia) remain "a material headwind." The firms adds light exposure to enterprise PCs (outperforming in 2014) and certain low-end PC segments seeing strong growth (such as Chromebooks) are also issues.
• Raymond James is still bullish: Though thinking management should've communicated console trends better, it believes AMD continues to execute well, and suspects there's an "element of prudence" to Microsoft/Sony's build activity.
• Nvidia (NVDA -3.9%) is off in sympathy. Read stated on the CC AMD saw a decline in high-end GPU shipments to graphics card channels - Digitimes previously reported something similar - as demand from cryptocurrency miners abated." Shipments are expected to rise in Q3.