Micron Surged to Lead S&P 500 Gains After Its Latest Earnings Report—Here’s Why

Micron Technology (MU) shares surged over 8% in intraday trading Thursday to lead S&P 500 gains after the chipmaker reported better-than-expected results and said it expects to gain from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

Micron reported fiscal first quarter 2024 revenue of $4.73 billion, up from $4.09 billion a year ago and above consensus estimates of $4.58 billion from Visible Alpha.

The company narrowed its losses from the prior quarter with a non-GAAP net loss of $1.05 billion, compared to a net loss of $1.18 billion the quarter before. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) at a loss of $0.95 per share represented an improvement from a loss of $1.07 per share in the previous quarter. Both exceeded estimates.

The chipmaker also said it expects to continue narrowing losses as it benefits from the AI boom.

“We expect our business fundamentals to improve throughout 2024, with record industry TAM projected for calendar 2025,” CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said, adding that “our industry-leading High Bandwidth Memory for data center AI applications illustrates the strength of our technology and product roadmaps, and we are well positioned to capitalize on the immense opportunities artificial intelligence is fueling across end markets.”

Analysts from Wedbush, UBS, and CFRA also said that Micron was well-positioned to gain from demand for AI tech.

Micron “remains a top idea” for 2024, according to UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri, who said that “supply and demand vectors continue to move in opposite directions and pricing is headed potentially much higher.”

Angelo Zino, vice president and senior equity analyst at CFRA Research, “expect[s] another year of healthy performance for semiconductor stocks, but not nearly as good as 2023,” noting that “top names” include Micron alongside Nvidia (NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Marvell Technology (MRVL), Broadcom (AVGO), and Semtech (SMTC).

Zino added that “memory is poised to witness the most notable rebound, as we favor the fundamentals on the DRAM side, given AI prospects are tied to high bandwidth memory.”

Micron shares were up 8.7% at $85.50 per share as of about 3:05 p.m. ET Thursday, and have gained close to 70% in 2023 so far.