Micron management’s tone ‘incrementally downbeat,’ says Stifel

Stifel analyst Brian Chin said the tone of Micron’s CFO on near-term business and industry conditions while speaking at a sell-side investor conference yesterday was "incrementally downbeat," but also consistent with the company’s recent moves to further reduce memory output and investment. The CFO noted that memory pricing has trended "well below" Micron’s initial expectation, which Chin suspects could temper prior optimism for bit shipments to exhibit some pick-up in the February quarter. Following the presentation, he sees both volumes and pricing trending worse than previously expected and now models a wider FY23 loss of ($2.35), versus consensus at (70c), said Chin, who keeps a Hold rating and $54 price target on Micron shares.