How Micron Blew Earnings Out of the Water

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 12, 1:40PM EST · Published Mar 23, 4:24PM EDT

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How Micron Blew Earnings Out of the Water — © Thinkstock

[cnxvideo id=”507733″ placement=”ros”]Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) reported fiscal second-quarter financial results after markets closed on Thursday. The company said that it had $0.90 in earnings per share (EPS) and $4.65 billion in revenue, compared with consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters that called for $0.85 in EPS and revenue of $4.64 billion. The same period of last year reportedly had a net loss of $0.05 per share and $2.93 billion in revenue.

Rising revenues in the quarter were primarily the result of a 21% increase in DRAM average selling prices and an 18% increase in trade NAND sales volumes. The company’s overall consolidated gross margin of 36.7% for the quarter was 11.2 percentage points higher sequentially due to increases in DRAM average selling prices and manufacturing cost reductions for both NAND and DRAM.

On December 6, 2016, the company acquired the remaining 67% interest in Inotera and began consolidating Inotera’s operating results. Inotera manufactures DRAM products at its 300mm wafer fabrication facility in Taiwan. The aggregate fair value of consideration consisted of $3.11 billion of cash, $995 million for the fair value of the Micron shares exchanged for Inotera shares, and $1.44 billion for the fair value of the company’s previously held equity interest in Inotera.

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On the books, Micron cash and short-term investments totaled $3.90 billion at the end of the quarter, versus $4.40 at the end of the previous fiscal year.

Micron CEO Mark Durcan commented:

Strong demand and limited industry supply for NAND and DRAM solutions, combined with significant progress on our cost reduction plan, produced excellent results for our second quarter. I’m proud of the team’s execution on critical technology and operational initiatives, which will allow us to continue to capitalize on market trends.

Shares of Micron closed Thursday up 1.6% at $26.47, with a consensus analyst price target of $32.88 and a 52-week trading range of $9.35 to $26.61. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was up 4.5% at $27.68 in the after-hours trading session.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.