Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

CJ Muse went on CNBC this morning and made the case that the memory cycle most investors are watching does not actually peak where they think it peaks. “The real takeaway for memory is that supply is going to be even tighter in 27 than 26,” the Cantor Fitzgerald semiconductor analyst said, “and because of that you can actually think about earnings growth and not only 27 but also 28.” That is the bullish framing investors will be testing against tonight’s fiscal Q3 numbers from Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU | MU Price Prediction), which the company has confirmed will land after the close on June 24, 2026.

Why Muse is anchoring on 2028 The Cantor argument is essentially a duration trade dressed up as a memory call. If hyperscaler compute demand keeps growing through 2029 and 2030, then DRAM and HBM supply, which takes years and tens of billions of dollars to add, simply cannot catch up in the window analysts currently model. Muse pointed to the gap between compute and memory multiples as the giveaway. “If you look at compute multiples memory multiples there’s still significant upside,” he said, “as long as you underwrite the demand for compute, not peaking in 28, but extending into 2930 and beyond.”

The number doing the heavy work in Muse’s framework is $200. “I think the bulls are thinking about $200 of earnings for micron next calendar year. And if that’s right, you’re talking about a stock trading at five times,” he told CNBC, calling that a multiple he does not believe represents the right peak for the name. Micron closed Monday at $1,051.77. The stock is up 229% year to date and 717% over the past year. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NYSEARCA:SMH), for what it is worth, is on pace for its best first half since inception in 2000.

What the last quarter already told us Last quarter is the reason Muse can talk about this with a straight face. Micron’s fiscal Q2 2026, reported March 18, 2026, delivered revenue of $23.86 billion against an $19.51 billion estimate, with non-GAAP EPS of $12.20 versus $9.31 expected. GAAP gross margin reached 74.4%, up from 36.8% a year earlier, and the company guided fiscal Q3 to $33.5 billion in revenue plus or minus $750 million with non-GAAP gross margin near 81%. You can read the full 8-K press release on the SEC’s site.

CEO Sanjay Mehrotra framed the demand picture more soberly than the numbers might suggest. “In the AI era, memory has become a strategic asset for our customers, and we are investing in our global manufacturing footprint to support their growing demand,” he said in the release. The capex line is what makes Muse’s thesis interesting. New fabs ordered today come online in 2028 at the earliest, which leaves 2027 supply largely fixed.

SanDisk is telling you the same story If you want a second data point, look at SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK), the NAND-focused spinoff trading at $1,930 after a 601% year-to-date move. Its most recent quarter posted revenue of $5.95 billion, up 251% year over year.

Datacenter revenue alone grew 645%. CEO David Goeckeler flagged what he called “a structural memory shortage unlikely to ease before 2028” in earlier commentary, language that lines up almost exactly with Muse’s framing.

What to actually watch tonight Polymarket has the crowd pricing a 96.7% probability that Micron beats on the bottom line tonight, against a consensus EPS estimate of $19.66. The beat itself matters less than whether management’s guide and any commentary about HBM3E allocations through 2027 validate the $200 EPS bull case Muse is using.

Analyst consensus targets sit below the current price, with 39 buys, 4 holds, and 1 sell. Sell side has been chasing the move.

The risk Muse himself flags is whether AI workload growth genuinely extends into 2029 and 2030, or whether new capacity arrives faster than the bulls expect. Tonight will not settle that. The order book commentary on the call might.

Micron Technology MU heads into earnings Wednesday with investors looking for more than just another beat. The memory giant's results are expected to offer one of the clearest reads yet on AI spending, semiconductor demand and whether the industry's momentum can continue into 2027 and beyond.

Wall Street expects Micron to report Q3 revenue of $35.25 billion and EPS of $20.28, representing growth of roughly 279% from a year ago. The company has beaten both revenue and earnings estimates in each of the last 8 quarters, raising expectations yet again heading into the report.

Micron shares have surged about 270% this year as demand for AI memory chips continues to outstrip supply. Analysts remain broadly bullish, pointing to strong DRAM pricing, tight industry capacity and robust AI demand. Over the past 3 months, analysts have issued 19 upward EPS revisions and 20 upward revenue revisions, with virtually no downward changes.

Beyond the headline numbers, investors will be listening closely for updates on DRAM and NAND pricing, capacity commitments for 2027 and whether customers are already locking in supply for 2028.

The memory stock rally skidded to a halt on Tuesday as yesterday's tech sell-off expanded to new industries and countries.

ToplineMicron shares plummeted over 13% on Tuesday, falling as South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service contributed to a global chip sell-off with a warning about risky ETFs tied to memory chip companies like Samsung and SK Hynix.

Micron's stock is up more than 260% on the year.

Photo illustration by Cheng Xin/Getty Images

Key FactsMicron’s stock closed down 13.3% at $1,051.77, erasing two day’s worth of significant gains made by the stock Friday and Monday.

The drop came after Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Chan-jin told Bloomberg he regretted not blocking the launch of leveraged exchange-traded funds solely tracking Samsung and SK Hynix, noting their high-risk nature has not stopped retail investors from engaging with them.

Leveraged single stock ETFs are designed for short-term trading and can amplify daily price movements by two or three times, allowing investors to double or triple gains or losses in a single day.

The statement raised questions about whether Micron’s astronomical stock run this year was driven by momentum trading rather than fundamentals.

Micron has soared over 260% since the start of the year, when the company’s stock traded around the $300 mark.

Crucial Quote“These are high-risk products, and it seems like about 92% of holders are retail investors,” Lee told Bloomberg. “Despite consumer warnings, trading hasn’t cooled.”

Big Number761%. That is how much Micron shares have rocketed year-over-year.

Surprising FactIf a single share of Micron was bought exactly one year ago and sold today, it would pocket the seller around $929.

Key BackgroundSeveral chip and memory stocks tumbled ahead of Micron’s earnings Wednesday and as investors began pricing in a rise in interest rates by December. Nvidia stock fell over 4%, while AMD shares fell nearly 6% and Intel’s stock dropped 6.1%. JPMorgan analysts said Tuesday’s selloff may have been triggered by “anxiety” before Micron’s earnings, which tend to act as a gauge for AI demand. WedBush Securities analyst Dan Ives noted there was “some added nervousness on the important memory chip trade” ahead of the earnings report, saying the stock market was experiencing a “gut check moment.”

Further ReadingGlobal Tech Rout—Nvidia, Tesla, More—Hits Markets: Here’s What Fueled The Selloff (Forbes)

SpaceX Shares Fall Below $150 Debut Price For First Time (Forbes)

Listen to the audio version of this article (generated by AI).

Memory stocks get nailed… Apple forced to raise prices… the memory trade today and who’s winning it… your MU earnings checklist for tomorrow… last chance for tomorrow’s “Time Machine” As I write on Tuesday morning, memory stocks are getting slammed.

Micron (MU), SanDisk (SNDK), and South Korean AI-memory giant SK Hynix are all down double-digits as investors unwind one of the year’s hottest (and most crowded) trades ahead of Micron’s earnings tomorrow.

At first glance, investors appear to be sending a very different message than the one Apple CEO Tim Cook delivered last week.

Cook warned that memory prices have become so extreme that Apple can no longer absorb the costs.

So, who’s right?

The market? Or Tim Cook?

Well, let’s back up to better understand what Apple is telling us about one of the most important supply shortages in the AI economy.

Tim Cook calls it a “hundred-year flood” For months, Apple CEO Tim Cook has been trying to hold the line on memory costs — absorbing supplier price increases rather than passing them to customers.

That’s over.

Last week, Cook told The Wall Street Journal that price increases are “unavoidable” due to the ongoing memory shortage:

We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable.

At the heart of this is one problem: memory – the chips that power virtually every computing device you own.

Here’s the WSJ with a good way to think about it:

Memory, also called DRAM, and storage, also called NAND, are like elements of a mid-20th-century office: The memory is a desk that holds all the papers a worker needs to perform a task, while storage is the filing cabinet that holds everything else.

Your iPhone uses both. So does your laptop, your car, and your doctor’s medical equipment.

Source: Bagus Hernawan

So, what’s the problem?

Well, AI is eating all of it.

Skyrocketing memory prices with no relief in sight AI servers are memory-hungry in a way ordinary computing never was – a single AI server requires roughly eight to 10 times the memory of a traditional one.

This has resulted in enormous demand – and surging prices…

Since last year, when Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Meta (META), and Amazon (AMZN) began announcing massive increases in their AI capital spending, prices for memory and storage chips have both quadrupled.

The three companies that dominate DRAM production – Micron, SK HynixandSamsung – have responded by redirecting their fabrication capacity toward the specialized high-bandwidth memory AI customers demand. That leaves less supply for everyone else.

Cook put it plainly:

There’s less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases.

We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That’s the bottom line.

Apple is one of the largest buyers of memory on the planet, spending in the low tens of billions of dollars per year. Historically, it has used that heft to wring the lowest prices out of suppliers, playing them against each other.

But with the supply/demand equilibrium radically shifted today, that’s changed. And even Apple is feeling the effects.

Back to Cook:

This is a hundred-year flood.

I’ve never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years.

When the world’s most powerful hardware procurement machine can’t negotiate around a commodity price shock, it tells you something definitive about the demand dynamic underneath.

Which brings us to the investment implications…

The stocks that are winning thanks to the memory shortage If memory stocks are in such demand, why are they tanking today?

Part of the answer is simple: these stocks have already had enormous runs so far this year.

Micron entered today up nearly 300% in 2026. SanDisk had surged more than 700%. When investors are sitting on gains like that, it doesn’t take much to trigger profit-taking.

Adding to the pressure, Micron reports earnings after the close tomorrow. Traders often lock in gains ahead of major reports, especially after a stock has already enjoyed a huge run.

But if you’re worried that today’s selloff signals a top, let’s shift our focus back to the supply/demand balance and pricing.

Here’s our technology expert Luke Lango. From his Daily Notes in Innovation Investor last week:

The pricing power of Micron (MU), Lam Research (LRCX), KLA (KLAC), ASML (ASML), Applied Materials (AMAT), SanDisk (SNDK), Seagate (STX) and Western Digital (WDC) is not a temporary cyclical phenomenon.

It is a structural reflection of demand running faster than supply can respond — the multi-year undersupply thesis confirming itself in real time.

Luke’s read is that the thesis still has runway: all three major memory producers have pre-sold their entire 2026 HBM (High-Bandwidth Memory) production under long-term contracts, with order visibility stretching deep into 2027.

And Morgan Stanley forecasts DRAM wafer capacity growing 30% by 2027 – yet even with that expansion, wafers for consumer tech will still fall up to 15% short of demand.

Still, be aware that memory is a historically cyclical industry, and when oversupply eventually arrives, the ensuing fallout could be brutal if history repeats.

But the numbers suggest we’re not there yet – even if it feels like it today.

To illustrate, Luke points to research shops Wedbush and Stifel, which both just raised their price targets on Micron, citing “both firms citing durable AI demand extending the memory upcycle well into 2027 and beyond.”

Here’s Luke’s bottom line:

The cumulative pattern across all of this sell-side activity is the estimate revision cycle we have been describing all week: actual AI infrastructure demand consistently exceeds consensus models, analysts revise upward, and stocks re-rate accordingly.

For Luke’s current positioning in Innovation Investor across the memory ecosystem – including which names he’d buy at current levels versus which have gotten ahead of themselves – click here to learn about joining him.

With this in mind, one thing to watch tomorrow There’s a framework that we often refer to in the Digest – legendary investor Louis Navellier’s Iron Law of the Stock Market.

In short, stock prices can diverge from earnings trends for a while, but over the long run, if a company keeps growing its earnings, its share price follows.

That framework is especially relevant for the memory trade – which brings us to tomorrow…

Micron reports third-quarter earnings after the close. Here’s what Louis, editor of Growth Investor – whose subscribers are up 162% in MU – expects heading in:

Third-quarter earnings are forecast to surge 930.9% year-over-year. Revenue is expected to jump 270.6% year-over-year.

The analyst community has revised third-quarter earnings estimates a whopping 73.8% higher in the past three months.

As to this morning’s selloff, Louis put a lot of the blame on SPCX, which continues to pull back. But then he pivoted to the memory trade and Micron, saying:

The results will be ridiculous, and it’ll be the strongest stock for sales and earnings, and we’ll see how it reacts…

So, hang in there, everybody. Let’s just celebrate Micron’s earnings on Wednesday. We’ll see what the aftermath of that is, what the guidance is going to be.

Earnings – both Micron’s and the broad sector’s – are what we need to watch to monitor where we are in the memory cycle.

As long as they’re growing and topping estimates, there’s more life in the trade.

When earnings begin disappointing, and management begins guiding lower, that’s when Louis’ Iron Law will cut against us, and caution becomes critical.

We don’t expect that to happen tomorrow with MU. Still, this is the issue to watch.

Specifically, watch for three details:

whether guidance on HBM demand remains strong… whether analysts continue raising forward estimates in the days that follow, and whether management’s commentary on order visibility into 2027 holds firm. Broadly speaking, if these signals stay intact, the memory trade stays intact – despite the huge run so far.

To learn more about joining Louis in Growth Investor to help navigate the memory trade, click here.

One more thing – and it’s time-sensitive Everything we’ve covered points to the same underlying challenge.

The memory trade is real. The structural thesis is sound. But the stocks that made early investors wealthy, like MU and SNDK, have already made huge moves.

The readers who benefited most weren’t the ones who chased the headlines. They were the ones who saw the bottleneck before Tim Cook was forced to call it a hundred-year flood on the front page of The Wall Street Journal.

The next trade will work the same way – it always does.

This is why tomorrow’s event from Marc Chaikin and his colleague Joe Austin is worth your time.

If you’ve been reading the Digest over the last week, you already know the setup. Marc spent 60 years on Wall Street building analytical tools – including the Power Gauge, a 20-factor stock rating system that helped him navigate the COVID crash, the 2022 bear market and last year’s tariff selloff. Joe spent four decades as a portfolio manager overseeing more than $10 billion in assets.

Together, they’ve built what they’re calling the most powerful tool of Marc’s career – an AI-powered platform that scans decades of market history to find stocks whose fundamental and technical fingerprints match the early profiles of proven multi-baggers, before Wall Street catches on. They’re calling it the Time Machine.

Tomorrow – Wednesday, June 24 at 10:00 a.m. – they’re unveiling it publicly for the first time, in a free broadcast.

This is the last call here in the Digest. If you want to be in the room when they show which stocks the Time Machine is flagging right now, click here to reserve your spot.

Have a good evening,

Jeff Remsburg

(Disclaimer: I own AAPL, MU, ASML, GOOGL, MSFT, AMZN)

The Kospi Index retreated sharply this week, reaching its lowest level since June 12, as technology stocks plunged.

The KOSPI fell nearly 10% on Tuesday, before rebounding on June 24 as investors reassessed the sharp tech-led selloff.

Sentiment, however, remains fragile and could come under renewed pressure if Micron (MU) disappoints investors with its earnings or guidance later today.

Kospi, an index tracking the biggest South Korean companies, has been in one of the longest bull runs ever seen. After bottoming at 2,268 in April last year, it jumped and peaked at 9,387 on Monday, a 320% surge. 

This surge has been driven by the ongoing AI supercycle that has boosted Samsung and SK Hynix to a valuation of over $1 trillion as the memory demand jumped.

These companies, together with Micron, their top US competitor, have seen demand for their products soar amid the ongoing data center investments. They are all fully sold out for the year, and some analysts believe that the trend will continue in the foreseeable future. 

Therefore, the Kospi Index is falling because of the fear that Micron stock will drop after its earnings later today. This fear has jumped after the last two big tech earnings: Broadcom and Oracle.

Broadcom published strong financial results and issued moderately good forward guidance. But despite that, its stock plunged by double digits, dragging the broader technology sector. It has never recovered and remains 23% below its highest point this year. 

Similarly, Oracle published a strong report earlier this month and then pulled back. It has dropped to $165, down by 35% from its highest point this year, and is hovering at the lowest level since May 1.

Therefore, the Kospi Index will likely remain on edge as investors wait for these earnings reports. If the numbers and the guidance are strong, it means that the index will resume the uptrend as it will signal that there is still demand for memory chips.

Wall Street analysts are upbeat about the upcoming Micron earnings, with the average estimate being that its revenue jumped by 279% in the last quarter.

Its guidance for the current quarter is that its revenue will rise by 275% this quarter, while the annual figure will soar by 205% to $114 billion.

Kospi Index also retreated after SK Hynix started to shift some of its capacity to the more commodity section of the DRAM market. That could be a sign that demand in the super high-margin HBM chips is starting to cool down.

This is important as SK Hynix briefly became the biggest company in South Korea this week.

At the same time, there are concerns that foreign investors have continued dumping their shares as they book profits. That is a sign that they expect demand to start waning.

Kospi Composite Index chart | Source: TradingView

Technicals also suggest that the Kospi Composite Index has formed some highly bearish chart patterns. It has formed a small double-top pattern, a common reversal sign in technical analysis.

Most notably, the index has formed a bearish divergence pattern. The Relative Strength Index has formed a descending channel and is about to cross the neutral point of 50. 

Also, the two lines of the Percentage Price Oscillator (PPO) have formed a bearish crossover and are pointing downwards.

Therefore, there is a risk that the Kospi Index will pullback in the near term, potentially to the psychological level of 7,000.

When it comes to buzz factor, two companies stand out right now: Micron Technology (MU 13.08%) and Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +1.61%). Micron's share price has skyrocketed more than 9x over the past 12 months. SpaceX recently set the record for the biggest initial public offering (IPO) ever, with a market cap of roughly $1.8 trillion right out of the gate.

Both Micron and SpaceX are benefiting from huge tailwinds. But they have very different stories for investors. Which of these hot growth stocks is the better buy right now?

Image source: Getty Images.

Micron's sizzling returns are due to the ongoing surging demand for memory chips. The company can't produce enough of its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to meet customer demand. HBM is a critical component for data servers running artificial intelligence (AI) applications. As Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra stated in March, " AI hasn't just increased demand for memory -- it has fundamentally recast memory as a defining strategic asset in the AI era."

But HBM isn't the only positive for Micron these days. The company is also delivering record sales for its DRAM and NAND memory chips. Again, AI is the primary growth driver, with AI demand expected to top 50% of the total addressable market in 2026 for DRAM and NAND used in data centers.

Granted, Micron isn't the only key memory supplier. Samsung and SK Hynix are formidable rivals. However, the market is currently large enough for all three players to flourish. Also, Micron is the only U.S.-based memory giant -- a distinction that gives it a competitive advantage in some cases.

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Meanwhile, SpaceX dominates the satellite internet service market with its Starlink unit. The company is also a leader in space launches, thanks to its reusable Falcon 9 rockets and its newer Starship spacecraft, designed to transport humans and cargo.

SpaceX thinks its biggest opportunity, though, is in AI. Founder Elon Musk merged one of his other companies, xAI, into SpaceX earlier this year. SpaceX estimates its total addressable market at a staggering $28.5 trillion. Enterprise applications (xAI's bailiwick) account for $22.7 trillion of this total.

Two distinguishing factors that immediately jump out with these two stocks are their financial positions and valuations. Micron is highly profitable, and its earnings continue to soar. It also looks attractively valued, with shares trading at roughly 10.5 times forward earnings. SpaceX remains unprofitable for now, so earnings-based valuation metrics aren't applicable. However, the stock's trailing 12-month price-to-sales ratio is 125, a nosebleed level by any stretch of the imagination.

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No contest My personal view is that there really isn't a contest between these two stocks. Micron is the better pick to buy right now -- and it isn't even close.

Sure, Micron is a cyclical stock, with all the risks that come with that status. However, the company is enjoying a strong up cycle that shows no signs of slowing down. SpaceX offers an exciting story. It may even deliver greater long-term returns. For now, though, Micron provides a much more compelling risk-reward proposition.

VICTORIA, Seychelles, June 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MEXC, a pioneer in 0-fee digital asset trading, released its May TradFi Futures trading data, showing rising user demand for U.S. stock-related products and broader participation across AI, semiconductor, index, and ETF markets. In May, MEXC's Stock Futures trading volume increased 105% month over month, while MU (Micron) Futures volume surged more than 1,000%. The index segment also saw strong growth, with overall trading volume up 134%. SpaceX (SPCX) Futures continued to draw market attention ahead of its IPO, reflecting growing user interest in participating in major traditional asset events through crypto-native trading infrastructure.

In May, rising AI-driven demand for HBM, or high-bandwidth memory, boosted market attention on the memory and storage sector. MEXC platform trading data reflected the same trend, with MU Futures volume rising 1,002% month over month and SNDK (SanDisk) up 757%. Core AI computing names also remained active, with AMD up 465% and NVDA up 151%. Beyond popular individual stocks, MEXC also offers AI-themed ETFs such as SOXL and DRAM, allowing users to trade both single-company opportunities and broader AI and semiconductor industry themes. The platform also continued to expand its global stock product matrix, adding leading Asian memory and semiconductor names including KIOXIA, SK Hynix, and Samsung Electronics. To date, Stock Futures covers more than 140 global equity-related assets, further expanding users' investment and trading choices across global markets.

User demand for U.S. stock-related products was not limited to popular individual stocks. Index and ETF products also saw active trading. SPX500 and NAS100 became the most actively traded U.S. stock-related Futures on the platform, while trading volume for QQQ, an ETF tracking the technology sector, increased 253% month over month. The three major U.S. index futures products, SPX500, NAS100, and US30, together accounted for 87% of trading volume in the index segment. Users are increasingly participating in broader U.S. stock market moves through ETFs and index products.

SpaceX (SPCX) Futures further demonstrated how crypto exchanges can extend user access to traditional asset events. Before SpaceX's anticipated IPO, MEXC had already launched SPCX Futures, attracting significant user trading activity and reflecting user demand to participate earlier in market moves around traditional IPO events.

From individual stocks to indexes, and from AI computing to the storage supply chain, crypto users are participating in U.S. stock-related products in increasingly diverse ways. Behind this shift is the maturation of cross-market trading infrastructure. USDT settlement lowers FX and fund-switching costs, a 0-fee trading environment reduces rebalancing friction, and long and short Futures positions provide more flexible ways to participate. Through a single account, users can access multiple asset classes including crypto, U.S. stocks, stock indexes, and commodities.

On this basis, MEXC is bringing global market trading that was previously fragmented across platforms and funding systems into a unified entry point familiar to crypto users. MEXC TradFi Futures currently cover more than 160 traditional financial assets across U.S. stocks, global stock indexes, ETFs, precious metals, commodities, and FX, further strengthening its one-stop cross-asset trading experience.

About MEXC
MEXC is the world's fastest-growing cryptocurrency exchange, trusted by more than 40 million users across 170+ markets. Built on a user-first philosophy, MEXC offers industry-leading 0-fee trading and access to over 3,000 digital assets. As the Gateway to Infinite Opportunities, MEXC provides a single platform where users can easily trade cryptocurrencies alongside tokenized assets, including stocks, ETFs, commodities, and precious metals.
MEXC Official Website｜X｜Telegram｜How to Sign Up on MEXC

Risk Disclaimer:
This content does not constitute investment advice. Given the highly volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market, investors are encouraged to carefully assess market fluctuations, project fundamentals, and potential financial risks before making any trading decisions.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e2be29e0-9291-41a8-b119-30f0633f159e

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/54ca750e-6330-46b0-ad63-c1385edd5eee

Dan Ives, global head of tech research and senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, discusses the importance of Wednesday's earnings from Micron Technologies, tech spending on capex and the AI buildout, and how he views public-private partnerships on AI companies. -------- More on Bloomberg Television and Markets Like this video?

SummaryCompaniesAnalysts expect Micron's Q3 profit growth over 1,000% revenue up nearly 285%Micron's shares have surged 761% over the past year, lifting market value to $1.19 trillionAnalysts expect memory-chip demand to outpace supply for at least the next two yearsJune 24 (Reuters) - The spotlight is on chipmaker Micron Technology as it prepares to ​report earnings, with investors bracing for further volatility following sharp market swings fueled by large flows tied to SpaceX and a two-day ‌boom-bust in semiconductor stocks.

Last June, Micron (MU.O), opens new tab was a well-known if somewhat obscure company with a market value of $136 billion and a long history, but not necessarily one whose quarterly earnings reports caught investors' fancy.

Get a daily digest of breaking business news straight to your inbox with the Reuters Business newsletter. Sign up here.

Fast forward a year, and Micron is one of the stars of the technology rally that has sent chipmakers around the world soaring, igniting a fresh trading ​frenzy even after a dozen or more months of AI excitement. Micron is up 761% from a year ago, boosting its market value ​to $1.19 trillion, placing it among the top U.S.-listed companies and surpassing Walmart and Intel (INTC.O), opens new tab.

That has proved to be a windfall ⁠for its investors but potentially adds to the stress portfolio managers and other market mavens face over how the company's results will turn out on ​Wednesday, as they try to work out what sparked the chipmaker selloff and gauge an unsettling debut for the new Federal Reserve chair.

The Nasdaq (.IXIC), opens new tab has fallen more ​than 5% after a record run and investors say the market swings have at times been surprisingly abrupt, leaving them to wonder which shoe could drop next.

"It's that question of whether it sets off a domino effect or whether it's just a little step back and then it takes a couple of steps forward again," said Michael Field, ​chief equity market strategist at Morningstar.

The parabolic gains in Micron and shares of other semiconductor stocks, combined with the slate of mega IPOs this summer, ​are generating concerns about market euphoria and a potential topping out of the major indexes.

At the same time, large expected earnings gains stemming from massive AI capital spending are ‌sustaining the ⁠market advance, but without necessarily extending too obviously into what is called "bubble territory."

"Part of the move in tech reflects funds taking profits and recognising that the risk-reward profile has shifted, particularly given the crowded positioning across parts of the global AI infrastructure and memory complex," said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.

PRICED FOR PERFECTIONThe technology selloff earlier in the week spread globally, with the tech-heavy stock markets of South Korea (.KS11), opens new tab and Taiwan (.TWII), opens new tab also slumping.

Large memory-chip players SK ​Hynix (000660.KS), opens new tab and Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), opens new tab recently soared ​above $1 trillion in market capitalization, becoming ⁠among the first few Asian companies to notch the milestone.

Micron is expected to post third-quarter results after the closing bell on Wednesday. Analysts, on average, expect the Idaho-based company to post a profit growth of more than 1,000% ​and a near 285% jump in revenue, compared with a year ago.

Micron's chips are tightly integrated into AI systems ​and analysts expect ⁠demand for memory chips to outpace supply for at least the next two years.

"Micron is taking on an Nvidia type of market dynamic," said Kenny Polcari, chief market strategist at Slatestone Wealth.

"When a stock is priced for perfection, perfection becomes the minimum requirement. Anything less — softer guidance, slowing demand trends, margin pressure, or even a ⁠cautious tone ​from management could trigger a meaningful pullback."

Micron's shares rose 3.8% in premarket trading. Its forward-looking ​price-to-earnings ratio, a valuation metric, has dropped sharply to 8.59 as shares touched record highs and analysts ramped up their earnings expectations.

Chart showing Micron Technology's quarterly revenue growthReporting by Sruthi Shankar and Utkarsh Tushar Hathi in Bengaluru, writing by Colin Barr; Editing by Pooja Desai

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Micron stock is setting records and Wall Street is racing to raise price targets for the memory-chip maker.

HomeIndustriesComputers/ElectronicsBooming AI demand has sent Micron and Sandisk shares far into overbought territory, but historic hardware backlogs are sustaining a rallyPublished: June 16, 2026 at 8:06 a.m. ET

Memory-chip makers like Micron Technology and Sandisk have been some of the biggest winners of the artificial-intelligence build-out as their shares continue to skyrocket.

The rally is causing momentum indicators to flash signals that could signify a heavily crowded trade ripe for a correction. Shares of Micron MU have surged 275% in 2026 and nearly 830% in the past year, sending the stock’s trailing 14-month Relative Strength Index to 90.98 — its highest level since September 1995, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The pattern was initially pointed out by the account @Barchart in a Sunday X post.

© Canva | AndreyPopov from Getty Images and 400tmax from Getty Images Signature

Few stocks have rewritten their own story in 2026 the way Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU | MU Price Prediction) has. Shares closed at $1,087.99 on June 15, up 281% year to date and 843% over the past year, with net income growing 770.8% year over year last quarter.

Our 24/7 Wall St. price target for Micron is $701.69, implying 35.51% downside over the next 12 months. The recommendation is sell, with confidence of 90% (high).

Metric Value Current Price $1,087.99 24/7 Wall St. Price Target $701.69 Upside/Downside -35.51% Recommendation SELL Confidence Level 90% Why We Could Be Wrong Our 24/7 Wall St. price target sits well below where Micron trades today, and we want to be upfront: this is one of the most divisive stocks in the market. Real upside could come from an extended HBM supply shortage stretching into 2027, or from analyst targets like Aletheia Capital’s $1,600 Street-high. Consider our number one datapoint among many. A detailed bull case follows.

From $115 to $1,088 in 12 Months Micron jumped 14.61% in the past week alone and 50.14% in the past month, helped by an 8% pop tied to a US-Iran truce and a wave of analyst upgrades. Shares trade just 21% below the 52-week high of $1,097.47.

Fiscal Q2 2026 revenue hit $23.86B, beating consensus by 22.28%, with non-GAAP EPS of $12.20 versus $8.73 expected. Management guided fiscal Q3 to $33.5B in revenue and roughly 81% gross margin.

The Case for $1,500+ TD Cowen raised its target from $660 to $1,500, RBC Capital Markets moved to $1,200, and Cantor Fitzgerald sits at $1,500, all framing memory as an AI growth asset rather than a cyclical commodity.

CEO Sanjay Mehrotra told investors “AI has not just increased demand for memory; it has fundamentally recast memory as a defining strategic asset in the AI era.”

HBM is sold out through 2026, Micron can fulfill only 50% to two-thirds of key customer demand, and Cloud Memory ran at a 74% gross margin. If pricing stays tight, the bull scenario pushes Micron to $1,149.77 in our model, with Street targets reaching $1,600.

What Could Go Wrong Memory has always been cyclical, and the current cycle is extraordinarily steep. Our bear case projects $544.00, a 50% drawdown, if HBM supply catches up or hyperscaler capex pauses. Insider activity skews toward selling, with 102 recent transactions, net direction selling.

Capex is rising fast, with fiscal 2026 spending guided above $25 billion and another step up in 2027. Bulls counter that this is the cost of locking in multi-year customer demand, including Micron’s first five-year strategic supply agreement, which should smooth cyclical volatility.

Micron Price Prediction 2026-2030 Our 24/7 Wall St. price target of $701.69 reflects a sell at 90% confidence. The tipping factor: forward P/E math on $28.39 in earnings simply does not support $1,088 unless the AI memory cycle runs hotter and longer than any prior memory upcycle.

The thesis would turn more constructive if forward EPS estimates push above $40 on confirmed 2027 HBM contracts. The setup would look more cautious if hyperscaler capex growth slows or NAND pricing softens before fiscal year-end.

Year 24/7 Wall St. Price Target 2026 $701.69 2027 $640 2028 $575 2029 $520 2030 $491.56 These projections assume Micron continues executing on HBM but normalizes off peak pricing. Significant upside could come from sustained AI memory tightness into 2028, while a NAND glut or capex pullback remains the key risk.

The AI boom has created a small group of companies that sit at the center of an enormous spending wave. Most investors immediately think of Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) when they hear that story. Yet memory chips have quietly become just as critical to AI infrastructure as GPUs. 

Every AI server requires massive amounts of DRAM and high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and supply remains tight even after a year of record production. That shift has transformed Micron Technology (NYSE:MU) from a cyclical memory manufacturer into one of the market’s biggest AI winners. The stock has already delivered extraordinary gains, but Wall Street believes the story may not be finished.

An 811% Gain Doesn’t Mean The Opportunity Is Gone Micron opened trading on this date one year ago at approximately $118 per share. Twelve months on and the stock trades around $1,075, an 811% return that turned a $10,000 investment into more than $91,000.

Most investors would assume that kind of move leaves little upside remaining. TD Cowen disagrees. The firm raised its price target on Micron to $1,500 from $660 while maintaining its Buy rating. That target implies roughly 40% upside from current levels. The firm’s analyst team pointed to stronger-than-expected AI demand and a longer period of favorable memory pricing as the key drivers behind the increase.

Notably, TD Cowen is not alone. Cantor Fitzgerald also carries a $1,500 target, while Susquehanna has gone even higher with a $1,750 target.

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The Memory Cycle Looks Different This Time Memory has historically been one of the semiconductor industry’s most cyclical businesses. Prices rise, manufacturers expand capacity, supply catches up, and prices fall. That’s the pattern investors have seen for decades.

The current cycle contains two key differences. First, TD Cowen now expects pricing strength to extend through the second half of 2027. Previously, analysts expected a digestion period to begin during the first half of 2027, but stronger CPU demand and continued AI infrastructure deployments have pushed that timeline further out.

Second, analysts increasingly view AI as a structural shift rather than a temporary demand surge.

A cyclical upswing eventually returns to prior demand levels. A structural shift, though, raises the baseline. AI data centers need dramatically more memory per server than traditional computing workloads. Even if growth slows, the floor for future demand may remain far above where it stood before the AI era.

Bank of America recently argued that memory supply elasticity is structurally lower because of capital, packaging, and power constraints across the industry. Simply, supply can’t respond as quickly as it did during prior cycles.

Micron’s Competitive Position Keeps Improving Only three companies produce advanced memory at scale: Micron, SK hynix, and Samsung. Micron trails its industry peers — not by much, in some sectors — but that concentrated industry structure gives Micron more pricing power than it enjoyed in past cycles.

Management has also been signing longer-term customer agreements, creating greater revenue visibility than memory investors traditionally received. Analysts estimate Micron could generate approximately $150 per share in earnings during 2027 if current trends continue.

Surprisingly, Micron still trades at valuation levels that assume memory remains highly cyclical. Several analysts argue that if AI-driven demand proves more durable, investors may continue assigning a higher earnings multiple to the stock.

Key Takeaway In short, Micron’s 811% gain over the past year doesn’t automatically mean the opportunity has passed.

The bull case rests on two simple ideas: memory pricing may remain strong longer than expected, and AI has permanently increased demand for advanced memory products. TD Cowen’s new $1,500 price target reflects both assumptions.

Granted, memory remains a cyclical industry beyond AI and investors should expect volatility. Yet Micron today looks very different from the commodity memory company many investors remember. With AI servers consuming unprecedented amounts of DRAM and HBM, the company has become a critical supplier to one of the fastest-growing technology markets in history.

If Wall Street’s forecasts prove accurate, Micron’s remarkable run may have another chapter left to write.

In the latest trading session, Micron (MU - Free Report) closed at $1,020.76, marking a -6.18% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.57% loss on the day. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 0.64%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 1.15%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the chipmaker had gained 59.64% outpaced the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 2.85% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.14%.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Micron in its upcoming release. The company is slated to reveal its earnings on June 24, 2026. The company is forecasted to report an EPS of $19.72, showcasing a 932.46% upward movement from the corresponding quarter of the prior year. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $34.24 billion, up 268.09% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $60.23 per share and a revenue of $111.55 billion, demonstrating changes of +626.54% and +198.45%, respectively, from the preceding year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Micron. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 2.43% increase. Micron is currently a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking at its valuation, Micron is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 18.07. This signifies a discount in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 27.36 for its industry.

The Computer - Integrated Systems industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 14, which puts it in the top 6% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank evaluates the power of our distinct industry groups by determining the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks forming the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.

HomeEarnings AnalysisTech 

SummaryMicron is experiencing unprecedented demand for DRAM, NAND, HBM, and enterprise SSDs, driving record revenue and gross margins.MU's supply-demand imbalance is expected to persist beyond 2026, supported by Strategic Customer Agreements that enhance earnings visibility and pricing power.Consensus estimates for MU's FY26 and FY27 earnings are likely too conservative, with forward P/E potentially overstated and substantial upside remaining.I rate MU a Buy, citing derisked cyclicality, strong operating leverage, and favorable long-term demand trends despite execution and pricing risks. Alexander Sikov/iStock via Getty Images

Introduction Micron (MU) has historically been treated as a deeply cyclical memory stock, but the current cycle looks materially different. AI-driven demand for DRAM, NAND, HBM, and enterprise SSDs has created insatiable demand for MU

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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of MU either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Shares of Micron Technology (MU +10.43%) surged on Monday after an investment bank's research team highlighted the memory chip leader's staggering artificial intelligence (AI)-fueled growth potential.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Demand is outstripping supply The rapid build-out of AI data centers is creating enormous demand for the high-speed memory chips needed to run machine-learning applications. TD Cowen analyst Krish Sankar sees Micron as a prime beneficiary of this global megatrend.

Sankar reiterated his buy rating on the memory chipmaker's stock and boosted his share price forecast from $660 to $1500. His new price target implies potential gains of 38% for investors based on the stock's closing price on Monday.

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Sankar expects surging interest in agentic AI to drive demand for memory -- and, by extension, Micron's ability to command high prices for its chips -- well into the second half of 2027.

In turn, Sankar expects Micron to highlight multiyear customer agreements with attractive profit margins when it reports earnings on June 24.

This AI winner has much more room to run Micron's shares are now up a fortune-building 1,314% over the past half-decade, with more than 800 percentage points of those gains coming in just the last year.

Yet if analysts like Sankar are correct in their forecasts for persistent AI-driven demand for memory and, vitally, corresponding pricing power for Micron, this top semiconductor stock should continue to deliver lucrative returns to its shareholders.

Joe Tenebruso has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Micron Technology. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

HomeEarnings AnalysisTech 

SummaryMicron Technology, Inc. remains a Buy as memory chip bottlenecks and robust pricing drive strong earnings momentum, with no near-term cycle downturn in sight.Q2 2026 results saw revenues up 196% YoY, record 75% adjusted gross margins, and EPS beating consensus by 33%, fueled by both CMBU and CDBU segments.Industry-wide supply constraints and delayed fab expansions suggest pricing power and high margins will persist for MU through at least 2027, with new catalysts from Nvidia partnerships ahead.Despite MU stock trading above 16x forward EPS, FY2027 P/E remains below 10x; I see over 32% upside to a $1300.5 target, though competition and AI demand shifts pose risks. JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images

Investment Rating Update – “Buy” I’m relatively new on Seeking Alpha as an analyst, and I haven’t written a bunch of articles so far. However, you’re reading my 3rd piece on Micron Technology, Inc. (

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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of MU either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Micron Technology, Inc. faces extreme bearish positioning in the option market, with a put/call open interest ratio peaking at 10+ near its next earnings report. MU's implied volatilities exceeded 100% and peaked around 120%, nearly double the 52-week average. These unusual levels suggest to me that stock traders overlooked second-order risks from key geopolitical and competing events.

Nvidia NVDA , Micron MU and a long list of AI and quantum computing stocks rallied Monday after the U.S. and Iran reached a peace agreement, giving investors a reason to jump back into some of the market's highest-growth themes.

The biggest gains came from memory-related names. Micron climbed about 8%, while Western Digital WDC surged 13% and Seagate STX jumped 9%. In South Korea, memory giants Samsung Electronics gained 4.5% and SK Hynix rose 6.4%. Investors appeared to be betting that lower geopolitical risk could improve sentiment toward a sector already benefiting from booming AI infrastructure demand.

The rally spread well beyond memory. AMD AMD gained roughly 8%, Qualcomm QCOM rose 6%, and Nvidia added about 2%. Quantum computing stocks were even hotter, with Arqit Quantum ARQQ soaring 29%, D-Wave QBTS rising 13%, Quantum Computing (QUBT) gaining 12%, and Rigetti RGTI adding 10%.

Monday's move was a reminder that when geopolitical fears ease, money often rotates quickly back into risk assets and long-duration growth stories. The next thing to watch is whether details of the Iran agreement hold up and whether the rally has enough momentum to extend beyond the initial relief trade.

Wall Street rallied Monday as investors digested news of a preliminary peace agreement between the U.S. and Iran.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI +1.16%) rose 1.4% just before 1 p.m. ET, hitting a fresh all-time intraday high. The S&P 500 (^GSPC +1.70%) climbed 1.9%, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC +2.94%) led with a 3% gain. Meanwhile, oil prices fell sharply and the United States Oil Fund (USO 4.41%) dropped 4.5%.

The agreement, announced late Sunday, would extend the U.S.-Iran ceasefire for 60 days. It would also lay the groundwork for final negotiations on Tehran's nuclear program. If all goes as planned, this initial deal is set to be signed on Friday in Geneva, setting the stage for the conflict's endgame.

^IXIC data by YCharts

Tech leads, SpaceX soars Caterpillar (CAT +2.93%) led the Dow with a 2.3% gain, contributing 131 points to the index. The construction equipment giant's stock fell 5.9% last Wednesday on geopolitical uncertainty and inflation fears. Today's rally erased about half of that dramatic loss. The reasons were all the same, but in reverse.

The usual Dow heavyweights did their part in the index boost, and again, it was more of a geopolitical upswing than a bunch of company-specific surges. Financial titans Goldman Sachs (GS +1.55%) and American Express (AXP +3.57%) added gains of 1.5% and 3.6%, respectively, for reasons best described as "vibes."

Over on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite, tech giants led the rally. Alphabet (GOOG +3.13%) (GOOGL +3.30%), Nvidia (NVDA +3.28%), and Micron Technology (MU +10.19%) combined to add over $300 billion in market cap. The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weighted ETF (RSP +0.70%) rose just 1% versus 1.9% for cap-weighted versions of the S&P 500 index. Translation: this rally has a VIP section, and most stocks aren't in it.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

And the only major index that includes Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +16.00%) benefits from the freshly launched stock's massive momentum. SpaceX is up 10.3%, increasing its market cap by $239 billion. That's more fuel for the Nasdaq Composite's fires.

Elon Musk spent Sunday posting ambitious projections on X. He suggested SpaceX could hit $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2030 or 2031. That would require roughly 50x growth from 2025's $18.7 billion.

Oil traders finally exhaled. West Texas Intermediate crude fell to around $80 per barrel after President Trump declared on Truth Social: "Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!" The Strait of Hormuz is set to reopen on Friday, assuming the Geneva signing goes as planned.

Lower energy prices could ease inflation pressures, potentially reducing the need for further Federal Reserve rate hikes. The central bank meets this week; there's a 98% chance it does nothing, per CME FedWatch. That would still be better news for risky investments than the rate increase that seemed certain as recently as last week.

With oil prices down, Chevron (CVX 3.33%) was the Dow's largest loser, falling 3.5% as cheaper oil cut into the energy sector's appeal.

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Caveats apply Before getting too comfortable: the deal text hasn't been released, Israel isn't involved in the upcoming talks, and "preliminary" is doing a lot of work in today's headlines. Friday's signing in Geneva isn't the checkered flag; it's the starting line.

The same companies that looked good during last week's sell-off still look good today. The headlines changed, but the businesses didn't.

American Express is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Anders Bylund has positions in Alphabet, Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF, Micron Technology, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, American Express, Caterpillar, Chevron, Goldman Sachs Group, Micron Technology, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

This article was written and reviewed by Doug Nathman and his team at Trefis.

At the heart of the company's record-setting performance lies an extreme figure that highlights the pressure within the system, indicating why investors should proceed with caution.

With a remarkable increase of +774.6% over the past year, it is evident that investors in Micron Technology (MU) are anticipating an almost flawless future. The organization is achieving unprecedented results, driven by robust AI-related demand for its memory chips. However, when expectations soar to such heights, it's essential to examine the underlying stress factors beyond the prominent revenue and profit metrics.

BEIJING, CHINA - 2025/07/18: The illuminated "Micron" logo at the 3rd China International Supply Chain Expo. The third edition of CISCE has brought together more than 650 companies and institutions from 75 countries and regions said the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade the organizer of the expo. (Photo by Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

For Micron, the most indicative figure is not found in the income report. Instead, it is the customer demand fulfillment ratio - a gauge of the amount of memory that customers request and what Micron can actually provide. Currently, this figure stands at a notably low level.

A Reflection Of A Major ImbalanceDuring their recent earnings discussion, management reiterated earlier statements: for several key clients, the company can meet only 50% to two-thirds of their medium-term demand. Upon inquiring if this situation still persists, the CEO simply responded, "Yes, this situation has not changed."

To clarify, this does not suggest operational shortcomings. It exemplifies a significant supply-demand mismatch that is currently supporting Micron's profitability. With demand substantially exceeding supply across all end markets, the company holds considerable pricing authority. Nevertheless, such conditions, however advantageous, seldom endure indefinitely.

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Potential Erosion Of Pricing PowerThis fulfillment disparity serves as the driving force behind the company's financial projections. It enables Micron to anticipate a gross margin of roughly 81% for its upcoming quarter. This estimate stems directly from its ability to dictate pricing in a market where supply is constrained.

The concern for investors arises from what transpires when this imbalance begins to stabilize. Should that fulfillment ratio start to increase, it would signal either that supply is starting to catch up or, more troubling, that demand is diminishing. Either scenario could directly pressure the substantial pricing that the company currently enjoys, leading to a decline in those record margins.

The Importance Of The ShortageThe entire bullish argument for Micron relies on the sustainability of this shortage. The valuation of the stock is predicated on margins that surpass historical benchmarks; analysts on the company's call highlighted that previous cyclical peaks for margins hovered around the low sixties. The difference between this historical peak and the current 81% guidance suggests a significant amount of profit that could be jeopardized if the market normalizes.

Micron anticipates that this environment will persist, planning for capital investments exceeding $25 billion in fiscal 2026 to expand capacity. This is a reasonable reaction to being able to fill just 50% of customer orders. However, it also heightens risk. If market conditions shift before the additional supply becomes available, the company might find itself increasing capacity in a deteriorating market.

At present, the shortage is both real and lucrative. But the crucial metric to monitor is not the margin itself. It is an indication from management that the fulfillment ratio is beginning to rise. That will be the initial sign that the tightrope is starting to waver.

The Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio diversifies investments among 30 high-quality stocks and re-balances them systematically, ensuring that no single stock claims an oversized portion of your returns, and historically, it has outperformed the S&P 500, S&P Mid-cap, and Russell 2000.

Micron (MU - Free Report) is one of the stocks most watched by Zacks.com visitors lately. So, it might be a good idea to review some of the factors that might affect the near-term performance of the stock.

Over the past month, shares of this chipmaker have returned +35.5%, compared to the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +0.5% change. During this period, the Zacks Computer - Integrated Systems industry, which Micron falls in, has gained 21.7%. The key question now is: What could be the stock's future direction?

While media releases or rumors about a substantial change in a company's business prospects usually make its stock 'trending' and lead to an immediate price change, there are always some fundamental facts that eventually dominate the buy-and-hold decision-making.

Revisions to Earnings EstimatesHere at Zacks, we prioritize appraising the change in the projection of a company's future earnings over anything else. That's because we believe the present value of its future stream of earnings is what determines the fair value for its stock.

We essentially look at how sell-side analysts covering the stock are revising their earnings estimates to reflect the impact of the latest business trends. And if earnings estimates go up for a company, the fair value for its stock goes up. A higher fair value than the current market price drives investors' interest in buying the stock, leading to its price moving higher. This is why empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.

Micron is expected to post earnings of $19.72 per share for the current quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +932.5%. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate has changed +1.5%.

For the current fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $60.23 points to a change of +626.5% from the prior year. Over the last 30 days, this estimate has changed +2.4%.

For the next fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $105.79 indicates a change of +75.6% from what Micron is expected to report a year ago. Over the past month, the estimate has changed +5.4%.

With an impressive externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool -- the Zacks Rank -- is a more conclusive indicator of a stock's near-term price performance, as it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. The size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, has resulted in a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) for Micron.

The chart below shows the evolution of the company's forward 12-month consensus EPS estimate:

12 Month EPS

Revenue Growth ForecastEven though a company's earnings growth is arguably the best indicator of its financial health, nothing much happens if it cannot raise its revenues. It's almost impossible for a company to grow its earnings without growing its revenue for long periods. Therefore, knowing a company's potential revenue growth is crucial.

In the case of Micron, the consensus sales estimate of $34.24 billion for the current quarter points to a year-over-year change of +268.1%. The $111.55 billion and $185.89 billion estimates for the current and next fiscal years indicate changes of +198.5% and +66.6%, respectively.

Last Reported Results and Surprise HistoryMicron reported revenues of $23.86 billion in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +196.3%. EPS of $12.2 for the same period compares with $1.56 a year ago.

Compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $19.61 billion, the reported revenues represent a surprise of +21.67%. The EPS surprise was +38.64%.

The company beat consensus EPS estimates in each of the trailing four quarters. The company topped consensus revenue estimates each time over this period.

ValuationNo investment decision can be efficient without considering a stock's valuation. Whether a stock's current price rightly reflects the intrinsic value of the underlying business and the company's growth prospects is an essential determinant of its future price performance.

Comparing the current value of a company's valuation multiples, such as its price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), and price-to-cash flow (P/CF), to its own historical values helps ascertain whether its stock is fairly valued, overvalued, or undervalued, whereas comparing the company relative to its peers on these parameters gives a good sense of how reasonable its stock price is.

As part of the Zacks Style Scores system, the Zacks Value Style Score (which evaluates both traditional and unconventional valuation metrics) organizes stocks into five groups ranging from A to F (A is better than B; B is better than C; and so on), making it helpful in identifying whether a stock is overvalued, rightly valued, or temporarily undervalued.

Micron is graded F on this front, indicating that it is trading at a premium to its peers. Click here to see the values of some of the valuation metrics that have driven this grade.

ConclusionThe facts discussed here and much other information on Zacks.com might help determine whether or not it's worthwhile paying attention to the market buzz about Micron. However, its Zacks Rank #1 does suggest that it may outperform the broader market in the near term.

Micron Technology MU shares surged more than 7% on Monday as investors continued to embrace the artificial intelligence-driven semiconductor rally, while fresh signs of memory chip shortages reinforced expectations of a prolonged industry upcycle.

The stock rose to $1,076.79 in trading, extending recent gains as broader markets reacted positively to the prospect of a potential peace agreement between the United States and Iran.

Micron has become one of the key beneficiaries of the AI infrastructure boom, with growing demand for memory chips used in data centers, AI servers, and advanced computing applications driving investor enthusiasm.

The company’s shares have also attracted attention because of their relatively low valuation compared with broader technology stocks.

Despite its recent rally, Micron continues to trade at a discount to many technology peers.

According to FactSet data, the company was trading at 9.74 times forward earnings as of Friday's close, compared with 25.5 times for the Nasdaq Composite.

The discount reflects the memory industry's long history of boom-and-bust cycles, which have traditionally led investors to assign lower valuation multiples to memory-chip manufacturers.

However, the emergence of artificial intelligence as a major demand driver has prompted some investors to reconsider that view.

Market participants increasingly believe the industry may be entering a prolonged "supercycle" as AI systems require significantly larger amounts of memory capacity.

Recent developments have added to concerns about tight memory supply conditions.

Last week, Microsoft's Xbox division highlighted challenges related to component availability, offering another indication that demand continues to outpace supply.

That a platform holder is publicly weighing a new hardware model and flagging constrained console output shows the pass through has moved from PCs and phones into fixed BOM [bill of materials] devices that can’t easily reprice, reinforcing our structural shortage through 2027+ thesis

Analysts at RBC Capital also turned more optimistic on Micron's prospects, raising their price target on the stock to $1,200 from $525 while maintaining an Outperform rating.

The firm increased its estimates based on stronger pricing assumptions and expectations for higher memory-chip volumes.

According to RBC, the current DRAM upcycle has already lasted 12 quarters, exceeding the eight- to nine-quarter cycles experienced in 2014 and 2018.

The firm believes the cycle could continue for another five to six quarters as supply growth remains constrained.

RBC cited limited clean-room capacity, ongoing conversion toward high-bandwidth memory (HBM) production, robust capital expenditure trends, and growing demand from generative AI applications as factors supporting the outlook.

The brokerage also noted that the expansion of inference workloads and agentic AI applications is creating a structural increase in memory demand, while few near-term developments appear capable of easing supply tightness.

Technical outlook remains constructiveFrom a technical perspective, Micron continues to trade in a strong long-term uptrend.

The stock currently sits 18.1% above its 20-day simple moving average, 55.7% above its 50-day moving average, and 176.4% above its 200-day moving average.

The broader bullish structure remains intact, with the 20-day moving average positioned above the 50-day average and the 50-day average above the 200-day average.

This pattern has supported the stock's advance since a golden cross formed in June 2025.

However, momentum indicators suggest the pace of gains may be moderating.

The MACD remains below its signal line, and the histogram remains negative, indicating slower upside momentum compared with earlier stages of the rally.

Investors are now closely watching resistance near $1,089.50, close to Micron's 52-week high of $1,089.29, as the stock continues to test the upper end of its recent trading range.

Micron stock was climbing as investors flock back to the artificial-intelligence hardware trade.