In 2016, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) stood out among semiconductor stocks (SMH), growing threefold as it announced products that would compete with those of larger rivals NVIDIA (NVDA) and Intel (INTC). In 2017, AMD’s stock rose 19% as it announced the release of its high-end Ryzen CPUs (central processing units) and Vega GPUs (graphics processing units).

AMD’s stock price growth was based on expectations of the company achieving record-high earnings with its return to the high-end market. Analysts were optimistic about the company’s growth as it expanded beyond PCs (personal computers) into the gaming and data center spaces. However, this growth was not backed by AMD’s earnings—the company continued to report losses.