Micron disappoints on earnings outlook: ‘I want to be a buyer here’

Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ: MU) lost about 5.0% in extended trading even though its reported better-than-expected results for its fiscal fourth quarter.

Why is Micron stock down in after-hours?

The stock is being punished primarily because the earnings guidance for the current quarter failed to meet estimates.

Micron forecasts up to $1.14 a share of loss in its first quarter versus analysts at 88 cents on average. Still, Jeff Kilburg – the Chief Executive of KKM Financial said today:

I want to be a buyer here. In recent months, you have seen a rebound in memory chips.

Note that Micron does see its revenue falling between $4.2 billion and $4.6 billion in Q1 – better than $4.24 billion that experts had called for. The tech stock is still up more than 25% year-to-date.

Micron Q4 earnings snapshot

• Lost $1.43 billion versus the year-ago $1.49 billion
• Per-share loss also declined from $1.35 to $1.31
• Adjusted loss came in at $1.07 as per the press release
• Revenue declined almost 40% YoY to $4.01 billion
• Consensus was $1.15 a share loss on $3.95 billion revenue

Micron is now calling for a mid-single-digits growth in DRAM demand in calendar 2023 and a high-teens increase in NAND. On CNBC’s “The Exchange”, Kilburg also said:

We’re coming off the AI euphoria but at the end of the day, this is a semiconductor name. We’ll see memory chips come back, everything we utilize wants more and more memory.

He’s bullish even though China banned Micron chips earlier this year (find out more).