Micron Technology's earnings blowout, new fiscal quarter guidance rewrites Wall Street's perception

Surprise in Performance Behind the Strong Rally

Before Thursday’s market open, Micron Technology(MU.US)'s stock surged over 14%, reaching $257.90. This rally was not unfounded—the company’s latest earnings report directly defied market expectations.

In the first fiscal quarter, adjusted revenue reached $13.64 billion, with a sequential increase that shocked analysts. Wall Street’s consensus was around $12.95 billion, but the actual figure was approximately $690 million higher. Even more impressive, this revenue grew 57% year-over-year, highlighting the robust demand in the storage chip sector.

Profitability Shines Brightly

Net profit was even more eye-catching—according to GAAP, the company jumped from $2 billion last year to $5.2 billion, a 160% increase. The steepness of this profit curve fully reflects improvements in cost control and capacity utilization.

Cloud Storage and Data Center Drive Growth

Breaking down the business, the cloud storage segment posted revenue of $5.284 billion in the first fiscal quarter. Compared to $4.543 billion in the previous quarter, this represents a sequential growth of over 16%. Looking at the same period last year with $2.648 billion, this business has more than doubled annually.

The data center business also performed strongly, with revenue reaching $2.379 billion in the first quarter, a significant increase from $1.577 billion in the previous quarter. Although comparable to $2.292 billion in the same period last year, the quarter-over-quarter upward trend indicates improved demand.

Guidance Surprises the Market, Reassessing Valuations

The highlight is the guidance. The company expects second fiscal quarter revenue to reach $18.7 billion, with a variance of plus or minus $400 million. This figure starkly contrasts with analysts’ expectations of $14.38 billion, a difference of $4.32 billion, exceeding 30%.

Such a positive revision in guidance often signals sustained optimism for storage chips, especially AI chip packaging substrates and server memory demand. As a storage giant, Micron is riding the wave of this boom.