Remember when everyone was freaking out about AI stocks taking a nosedive? Well, someone forgot to tell Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) about the memo. While other AI darlings were busy having their valuations reality-checked, Micron just casually dropped some absolutely bonkers earnings that sent its stock rocketing 13% in a single day.
And get this – the stock is now up a completely ridiculous 202% year-to-date. That’s the kind of number that makes you want to time-travel back to January and have a serious conversation with your past self about portfolio allocation.
The Numbers That Made Wall Street Do a Double-Take
Micron’s Q1 results weren’t just good – they were the financial equivalent of a mic drop. The memory chip maker pulled in $13.64 billion in revenue, crushing estimates of $12.8 billion like they were made of tissue paper. That’s a 56% jump year-over-year, which in corporate speak translates to “we’re absolutely killing it.”
But here’s where it gets spicy: they posted net income of $5.2 billion, or $4.60 per share. Analysts were expecting $3.94. In the world of earnings beats, that’s not just clearing the bar – that’s pole-vaulting over it while doing a backflip.
Why Micron Is Having Its Main Character Moment
Here’s the thing about Micron – they’re basically the cool kid everyone wants to hang out with in the AI playground. They make the high-bandwidth memory chips that power AI data centers for the big boys like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. Plus, they’re supplying the memory for chip giants like Nvidia, Intel, and AMD.
Think of them as the friend who knows everyone at the party. When AI needs memory (and trust me, AI is very memory-hungry), Micron is the one getting the call.
Their cloud memory business alone grew 99% year-over-year to $5.3 billion. That’s not a typo – ninety-nine percent. At this point, they’re basically printing money faster than the Federal Reserve.
The Plot Twist: It’s Actually Reasonably Priced
Here’s where Micron gets interesting from a value perspective. While other AI stocks are trading at valuations that would make a venture capitalist blush, Micron is sitting pretty with a P/E ratio of 21 and a forward P/E of just 11. Their PEG ratio? A microscopic 0.19, which basically screams “undervalued” in financial nerd speak.
For Q2, they’re guiding for $18.7 billion in revenue (up 37% from Q1) and earnings of $8.19 per share. If they hit those numbers, we might need to start a support group for people who didn’t buy Micron stock.
The moral of the story? Sometimes the best AI play isn’t the flashiest name everyone’s talking about. Sometimes it’s the company quietly making the stuff that makes everything else work – and laughing all the way to the bank.