Micron Technology, Inc. (MU) Finally Swings Back to a Profit

Competitors

Other memory producers may also stand to benefit from higher prices in the memory market, although this hasn’t materialized for all of them. Samsung is the world’s largest producer of memory with a market share of roughly 35%. Contrary to what Micro reported, Samsung saw its sales as well as its operating income from memory drop some 4% and 25% respectively. According to the release, PC demand remained seasonally weak, while mobile sales were pretty solid. The company is increasingly turning towards mobile and server DRAM products as they seem to offer the best opportunities for growth.

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) is another company active in the sector, and primarily manufactures NAND based solution products. While its growth slowed down somewhat in 2012, annual EPS dropping to $2.38 from $4.65, results were considerably better than analysts had expected. The company kicked off fiscal 2013 with a fairly healthy beat, with record first quarter retail revenue. SSD storage accounted for some 20% of sales, with total revenue increasing 11% year-over-year. SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) is clearly also benefiting from increased demand and pricing for memory.

The Bottom Line

Things finally seem to have turned around for ailing memory company Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU). After a long slump, caused mainly by weakness in the global memory market, demand and prices are picking up. In anticipation of this development, the stock has had a great run-up in price, and may now be a bit overbought. However, a quarterly profit is no doubt a great sign for the company’s future, and it may be able to keep up this performance throughout the rest of the year.

The article Micron Finally Swings Back to a Profit originally appeared on Fool.com.

Daniel James has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Daniel is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.

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