Micron (MU) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

Micron (MU) closed the most recent trading day at $50.06, moving -1.35% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.77% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.44%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.49%.

Heading into today, shares of the chipmaker had gained 1.83% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 5.59% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.03% in that time.

MU will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1, up 78.57% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $6 billion, up 23.27% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $2.76 per share and revenue of $21.31 billion, which would represent changes of -56.54% and -8.97%, respectively, from the prior year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for MU. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. MU is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that MU has a Forward P/E ratio of 18.37 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 18.37, so we one might conclude that MU is trading at a no noticeable deviation comparatively.

Investors should also note that MU has a PEG ratio of 1.79 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Semiconductor Memory industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.79 as of yesterday's close.

The Semiconductor Memory industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 5, which puts it in the top 2% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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