Shares of Micron (MU) retreated 7% during Friday’s trading session, erasing a portion of Thursday’s 3.2% advance. However, the memory chipmaker still finished the week with approximately 6% gains.
American depositary receipts for SK Hynix declined 8.8% during the same trading day, following a 2.6% increase in the previous session.
Friday’s decline followed a challenging month for memory semiconductor stocks. Over the past 30 trading days, Micron shares have decreased 12.8%, while SK Hynix’s Seoul-traded stock has plummeted nearly one-third during the identical timeframe.
Questions surrounding memory chip pricing sustainability have pressured the sector. These concerns persist despite this week’s recovery in both stocks.
A positive development emerged from Alphabet’s quarterly earnings, revealing ongoing expansion in data center capital expenditure — encouraging news for memory semiconductor manufacturers like Micron. Alphabet stock experienced its largest single-session market capitalization decline in history, yet the optimistic data center spending forecast helped boost memory stocks approaching week’s end.
Bank of America reaffirmed its Buy recommendation on MU during the week with a $1,550 price objective, representing approximately 65% potential upside from present levels.
The investment bank dismissed concerns that China’s Kimi K3 AI model would curtail AI infrastructure investment. BofA presented a contrarian view — suggesting that increasingly efficient AI models may actually accelerate demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), DDR5, and NAND storage solutions.
BofA further believes open-weight AI architectures could significantly expand Micron’s total addressable market by attracting thousands of enterprise customers who will deploy AI models on proprietary infrastructure, rather than depending exclusively on major hyperscale providers.
Micron presently trades at approximately 21.5 times trailing twelve-month earnings and 13.1 times forward earnings — below the semiconductor sector average. Additional financial institutions including KeyBanc, TD Cowen, Bernstein, and Citigroup maintain optimistic ratings on the stock. The analyst consensus price target stands near $1,495, indicating roughly 60% upside potential.
Micron’s latest quarterly performance provides substantial evidence supporting the bullish thesis. Fiscal third-quarter revenue reached an all-time record of $41.46 billion, climbing 346% compared to the prior-year period. Adjusted earnings per share totaled $25.11, substantially higher than $1.91 in the comparable quarter last year.
Free cash flow achieved a record $18.3 billion. Operating cash flow reached $25.39 billion.
Company management provided guidance for approximately $50 billion in fourth-quarter revenue and non-GAAP earnings per share of roughly $31.
Micron has additionally secured long-term supply partnerships with automotive industry customers including Ford, General Motors, Qualcomm, Denso, Harman, and Visteon.
The coming week features earnings announcements from Microsoft on July 29 and Amazon on July 30. Should either company indicate elevated data center capital spending — similar to Alphabet’s disclosure — memory semiconductor stocks may experience additional momentum.
Wall Street analysts assign Micron a “Strong Buy” consensus rating.
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