Micron Outlines Upbeat Outlook, Reports Strong Results as Memory Prices Rise

05:14 PM EDT, 09/30/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Micron Technology (MU) provided a fiscal first-quarter outlook above Wall Street's estimates and reported stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter results amid rising memory prices. The semiconductor manufacturer anticipates adjusted earnings of $38.15 a share, plus or minus $1, for the ongoing quarter, it said late Wednesday. Revenue is pegged at $60 billion to $63 billion. The current consensus on FactSet is for non-GAAP EPS of $35.47 and sales of $57.4 billion. Micron achieved record revenue of $133.2 billion in fiscal 2026, up 256% year over year. "As strong as fiscal 2026 was, we expect fiscal 2027 to be even better," Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra said in prepared remarks. "Industry demand has strengthened since our last earnings call, and we expect memory and storage supply-demand conditions to be much tighter in fiscal 2027 and 2028 than they were in 2026." Prices for dynamic random access memory, the main working memory in servers and PCs, increased by high-teens percentages, while those for NAND rose about 30% sequentially in the fiscal fourth quarter, Chief Financial Officer Mark Murphy said. Micron expects gross margins to trough in the first quarter before expanding across the remainder of the fiscal year. "We expect higher gross margins beyond fiscal (first quarter) for the remainder of fiscal 2027, with a more moderate rate of price increases," Murphy added. For the fourth quarter ended Sept. 3, Micron reported adjusted EPS of $33.42, up from $3.03 the year before, and topping the Street's view for $31.72. Revenue soared to $54.23 billion from $11.32 billion, surpassing the average analyst estimate of $51.33 billion. The stock dipped 0.8% in after-hours trade, having rallied 273% this year through Wednesday close. Revenue from the cloud memory business rose to $16.28 billion from $4.54 billion in the prior-year quarter. The core data center and mobile and client segments soared to $18 billion and $13.11 billion, respectively, from $1.58 billion and $3.76 billion last year. The automotive and embedded division sales grew to $6.82 billion from $1.43 billion. Wedbush Securities said Monday that it expected Micron to report strong fourth-quarter earnings driven by favorable memory trends. In the second calendar quarter of 2026, pricing for standard DRAM likely soared by triple digits, while NAND flash is expected to have increased by high double digits, according to the note. "While we believe it's uncertain how supply/demand dynamics will shift into 2028 and 2029 as large new fabs come on-line, we expect (pricing) will continue to creep higher in 2027," Wedbush analyst Matt Bryson wrote in the note. Last month, Nvidia (NVDA) reported fiscal second-quarter results above Wall Street expectations amid record data center sales and provided an upbeat third-quarter revenue outlook. In July, Intel (INTC) posted better-than-expected second-quarter results.