Micron stock leads a brutal new chip sector selloff
Micron stock is tumbling amid a memory-chip selloff sparked by Chinese rival CXMT's blockbuster Shanghai debut, even after Micron posted record quarterly revenue and sky-high margins. Shares have dropped more than 27% in a month as investors price in competition fears—despite still-tight supply and Wall Street's largely bullish stance.
Key Takeaways
- Micron stock has fallen about 27.5% over the past month, sliding from above $1,132 toward the low $820s.
- The immediate trigger was CXMT's roughly 466% Shanghai IPO surge, which sparked a broader memory selloff.
- Micron still reported about $41.5 billion in quarterly revenue, up roughly 346% year over year, with 84.6% GAAP gross margins.
- Wall Street remains about 89% bullish, with a consensus target near $1,507, even as the stock trades around 13x forward earnings.
- Supply remains constrained into the decade, with HBM demand and customer agreements supporting the longer AI memory story.
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Why is micron stock falling if earnings look strong?
The disconnect is the story. Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) just delivered numbers few memory makers have matched: roughly $41.46 billion in a single quarter, up about 345.7% year over year, with GAAP gross margins at 84.6%. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra called memory a "defining strategic asset in the AI era."
Yet micron stock is down about 15.5% over the past week and 27.5% over the past month. According to 24/7 Wall St., the selloff followed Chinese DRAM maker CXMT's 466% Shanghai debut, which briefly pushed its market value past Intel and prompted investors to dump memory names across the board.
SanDisk fell about 9%, Western Digital about 8%, and Micron about 7% in that sector wave. CXMT mainly competes in commodity DDR5, not high-bandwidth memory (HBM), but markets often paint the whole group with one brush.
How deep is this chip selloff for Micron and peers?
Micron shares have slid from over $1,132 toward about $820.53, leaving the stock roughly 20% below its 52-week high of $1,254.81—though still far above a $103.21 low. With a beta near 2.14, MU tends to amplify every semiconductor shudder.
Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson has described the correction in semiconductor and storage stocks as "pretty well advanced." Seeking Alpha analysts upgrading the name argue the demand-and-supply backdrop still favors Micron, and that the crash has made valuation look more attractive after the re-rating of memory stocks.
One Seeking Alpha thesis frames the move as a "blood in the streets" moment: AI infrastructure demand, persistent memory shortages, and blowout fiscal Q4 2026 guidance underpin a Strong Buy-style upgrade even while the chart looks ugly.
Can micron stock rebound after this brutal slump?
Wall Street's consensus target sits near $1,507.38, backed by nine Strong Buys, 31 Buys, four Holds, and one Strong Sell—about 89% bullish. At roughly $820 against forward EPS near $64.97, MU trades around 13x forward earnings, a value-like multiple for a firm guiding to about $50 billion in quarterly revenue and $31 in non-GAAP EPS.
Micron says it can meet only about half to two-thirds of key customer demand. HBM4 is already shipping in volume for NVIDIA's Vera Rubin platform, with HBM4E expected to ramp in calendar 2027. Some bulls see supply tightness lasting into 2030, with 2027 potentially the tightest year.
Risks remain real: a hyperscaler capex reset, a rerun of the 2023 memory trough, or CXMT scaling faster in commodity DRAM. For now, micron stock is leading the chip slump—but the AI memory shortage story has not disappeared with the price chart.