Technology

Micron Earnings Continue to Push Shares Toward Multiyear Highs

Chris Lange

Published: June 30, 2017 7:30 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 10:32 am

When Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) reported its fiscal third-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Thursday, the company said that it had $1.62 in earnings per share (EPS) and $5.57 billion in revenue. That compared with consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters that called for $1.51 in EPS and $5.41 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had a net loss of $0.08 per share and revenue of $2.9 billion.

During the quarter, revenues increased by 20% to record levels compared to the previous quarter, and a whopping increase of 92% from the third fiscal quarter of 2016. This was primarily due to a 14% increase in DRAM average selling prices and a 17% increase in trade NAND sales volumes.

In terms of its segments the company reported:

• Compute and Networking Business Unit reported revenues of $2.4 billion, up 25% sequentially. This was due to increased bit shipments, ongoing success in penetrating growing segments like enterprise, graphics and high-performance memory and cloud and a stronger pricing environment.
• Mobile Business Unit had revenues of $1.1 billion, up 4% sequentially, driven by a stronger pricing environment.
• Embedded Business Unit had revenues of $700 million, up 19% sequentially.
• Storage Business Unit delivered fiscal third-quarter revenue of $1.3 billion, up 26% sequentially.

On the books, Micron’s cash and short-term investments totaled $4.33 billion at the end of the quarter, down from $4.40 billion at the end of the previous fiscal year.

Sanjay Mehrotra, Micron president and CEO, commented:

Micron delivered strong operational performance in the third quarter with free cash flow nearly double last quarter, which enabled us to retire $1 billion in debt. Our results reflect solid execution of our cost reduction plans and ongoing favorable industry supply and demand dynamics. The global trends taking shape today, including machine learning and big data analytics, are exciting and create significant opportunities for Micron. We are focused on positioning the company to realize these opportunities by investing in technology and products while also strengthening our balance sheet.

Shares of Micron closed Thursday down 2.4% at $31.47, with a consensus analyst price target of $39.11 and a 52-week range of $11.50 to $32.96. Following the release, the stock was up 2.5% at $32.6 in early trading indications Friday.