MU: Micron Technology’s Beat Kicks Off Earnings Season

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It’s just about that time of year again: Earnings announcement season, or as I like to call it, “judgment day” for the stock market. This is going to be a tough reporting season for some big blue-chip stocks.

Micron Technology mu stockWith 50% of the S&P 500‘s earnings coming from outside the U.S., the strong U.S. dollar will weigh on sales and earnings. So, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find companies with strong sales and earnings growth. Well, unless you know where to look.

I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for buying opportunities, and I’ve found one in a top memory chip producer. Micron Technology, Inc. (MU) is just over 35 years old, but in the semiconductor industry, that’s ages.

In the dark ages, Micron Technology’s single product was a 64-kilobyte memory card that could only contain the amount of information that is in half of a newspaper. Over the years, MU has expanded the capacity of its memory chips hundreds of thousands of times over and has broadened out into chips that can power a whole host of products.

Currently, Micron Technology employs over 30,000 worldwide across four continents and brings in over $16 billion in sales per year.

Earnings season doesn’t officially start until next Monday, but Micron Technology started things off last night with its fiscal first-quarter announcement. Analysts had estimated earnings at 92 cents per share on $4.62 billion in sales, which translates to 14.2% year-on-year sales growth and 19.5% earnings growth.

However, Micron Technology reported an earnings surprise of 97 cents per share, which is reflective of MU stock’s strong track record of beating analysts’ estimates (Micron has now posted double-digit earnings surprises for four of the past five quarters). I expect Micron Technology to continue doing even better.

So, given last night’s earnings announcement, I consider MU stock a B-rated “buy.”

Louis Navellier is a renowned growth investor. He is the editor of five investing newsletters: Blue Chip GrowthEmerging GrowthUltimate GrowthFamily Trust and Platinum Growth. His most popular service, Blue Chip Growth, has a track record of beating the market 3:1 over the last 14 years. He uses a combination of quantitative and fundamental analysis to identify market-beating stocks. Mr. Navellier has made his proven formula accessible to investors via his free, online stock rating tool, PortfolioGrader.com. Louis Navellier may hold some of the aforementioned securities in one or more of his newsletters.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2015/01/blog-micron/.

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