Micron Technology Inc. badly missed with its outlook for the latest quarter, which could stoke fears about near-term dynamics in the memory market.
For the fiscal second quarter, Micron $(MU)$ projected $7.90 billion in revenue at the midpoint, with $200 million in variability on each end. The FactSet consensus called for $8.94 billion.
"The NAND industry market conditions are weak, weaker than we had expected," Chief Financial Officer Mark Murphy said on the earnings call. Meanwhile, demand in the PC, smartphone and other consumer segments are weaker as well and "inventory adjustments are occurring."
Micron expects $1.33 to $1.53 in adjusted earnings per share for the fiscal second quarter, below the $1.91 consensus view. And Micron is calling for a 38.5% adjusted gross margin at the midpoint, down by one percentage point on a sequential basis.
Shares were sliding 15% in Wednesday's extended session.
The company posted $8.71 billion in overall revenue for the fiscal first quarter, matching what analysts tracked by FactSet were modeling.
"While consumer-oriented markets are weaker in the near term, we anticipate a return to growth in the second half of our fiscal year," Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra said in a release. "We continue to gain share in the highest-margin and strategically important parts of the market and are exceptionally well-positioned to leverage AI-driven growth to create substantial value for all stakeholders."
Micron saw data-center revenue make up more than half of total revenue for the first time in the latest quarter.
The earnings report has been highly anticipated within the chip sector given big moves in chip stocks, partly fueled by Broadcom Inc.'s $(AVGO)$ strong outlook. That had investors again digging beyond Nvidia Corp. $(NVDA)$ for semiconductor-sector beneficiaries of artificial-intelligence spending.
Some analysts foresaw the possibility that near-term pricing dynamics would weigh on Micron's results and outlook. Of interest was Micron's discussion of the potential for its high-bandwidth-memory business, which is useful for AI.
"We are on track to achieve our HBM targets and also deliver a substantial record in Micron revenue, significantly improved profitability and positive free cash flow in fiscal 2025," Mehrotra said in his prepared remarks. The company expects "multiple billions of dollars" in revenue from the category.
HBM revenue more than doubled sequentially in the latest quarter, he noted. Gross margins for the product "were significantly accretive to both DRAM and overall company gross margins," according to Mehrotra.