After the tech giant released a poor revenue forecast, and analysts lowering their outlook, Micron Technology (MU, Financial) shares fell 16% Thursday, the lowest level since September. Late Wednesday Micron said it expected current-quarter income of about $7.9 billion, which falls short of market projections. The company blamed falling demand in the industrial and automotive sectors as well as a lower-than-expected PC replacement cycle for the shortfall. Citing pressure on memory pricing in the PC and phone industries, especially for NAND flash-memory devices, Bank of America Securities downgraded Micron to “neutral” from "buy” and cut its price objective to $110 from $125.
Through the second and third quarters of fiscal 2025, the analysts likewise see low gross margins. Citi kept its "buy" recommendation but lowered its projections of earnings and revenue for fiscal 2025 and 2026. From earlier estimates of $8.27 and $37.7 billion, the company now predicts fiscal 2025 earnings per share (EPS) of $6.75 and revenue of $34.6 billion. Its EPS estimate for 2026 declined from $15.49 to $13.31. Wedbush Securities, on the other hand, kept its "outperform" rating and $125 price target, saying that the present difficulties are transient and showing hope about Micron's long-term future.
