Due to the increase in inventory of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), Citigroup has slightly lowered its expectations for Micron and adjusted its full-year 2024 sales forecast from $25.1 billion to $24.9 billion.$Micron Technology (MU.US)$Despite this, Citigroup maintains a buy rating on Micron stock but lowers the target price from $175 to $150.

Citigroup analyst Christopher Danileini pointed out in Tuesday's report that although the DRAM inventory in the personal computer and mobile phone markets has increased, it is expected that this trend will end before the end of the year. He further stated that Micron's revenue and gross margin are expected to grow in the next few quarters.

Citigroup's earnings per share forecast for Micron's fourth quarter is $0.89, with expected revenue of $7.5 billion, which is lower than the market's general expectations of $1.11 earnings per share and $7.65 billion in revenue, the latter is expected to grow by 12% sequentially.

In other news, despite the stable fundamentals, Micron Technology's stock price target has been adjusted multiple times. Morgan Stanley analyst believes that Micron's current valuation is difficult to justify and expects earnings per share of $3.7 this year. Raymond James lowered the target price to $125, citing a recent slowdown in the non-HBM DRAM and NAND markets. Nomura Securities adjusted the target price to $140, expecting significant growth in the HBM market due to advancements in artificial intelligence.

In contrast, considering Micron's recent update on November quarter DRAM and NAND bit shipments, Susquehanna maintains a positive rating on Micron but lowers the target price to $175.

In these developments, Micron not only resumed its share buyback program, but also introduced PCIe Gen6 solid state drive (SSD) technology and the ninth generation (G9) Triple-Level Cell (TLC) NAND solid state drive (SSD). In addition, Micron collaborated to order 'High NA' tools, which could drive the development of computer chip manufacturing.$ASML Holding (ASML.US)$However, new restrictions that the U.S. government may implement could limit China's ability to purchase advanced ai memory chips, which could impact Micron.

Overall, Wall Street analysts generally give Micron a 'strong buy' rating. Analyst Kumquat Research from Seeking Alpha believes that at the current price, Micron is a strong buy target, and is expected to rise with the increasing demand for high-bandwidth memory. Seeking Alpha also rates it as a 'buy'.

In addition, InvestingPro data shows that Micron has a market cap of $96.67 billion, indicating its important position in the semiconductor industry. Despite facing challenges (P/E ratio of -62.19), analysts are optimistic about Micron's sales growth this year. The continuous dividend growth over the past three years at Micron further supports this optimistic sentiment.

InvestingPro's data also indicates that as of the third quarter of 2024, Micron's revenue has grown by 17.6% in the past 12 months, indicating the company's ability to expand its revenue. However, the 11.42% gross margin indicates a low profit margin, which is consistent with Citigroup's mention of profit margin issues.

It is worth mentioning that Micron Technology is set to announce its fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 performance next Wednesday, and the market is highly focused on this.

Editor/ping