Micron Technology (MU) – Get Report shares rose Monday, after Mizuho Securities analyst Vijay Rakesh lifted his price target to $70 from $56 amid signs of continued strength in the market for cloud systems.
He maintained his buy rating for the semiconductor maker. It recently traded at $64.17, up 4.50%, and has climbed 19% year to date.
“Our checks indicate the first quarter of 2021 is setting up for a cloud hyperscale rebound,” Rakesh wrote in a commentary. “Our preliminary checks in the Asia server supply chain and conversations with US OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] point to a strong 1Q21/1H21 cloud server rebound after a soft 4Q20.”
Further, “For server management OEMs such as Aspeed, the September quarter was down significantly q/q,” he said. “the December quarter is also tracking weaker, we believe, at
potentially down 20% q/q, with accentuated weakness at some key hyperscale OEMs.”
Still, “The first quarter of 2021 could be positioning for an upside mean reversion,” Rakesh said.
Morningstar analyst Abhinav Davuluri offered a largely positive commentary for Micron after its latest earnings report in September.
“Work-from-home trends continuing to drive strong demand for cloud, laptop, and gaming,” he wrote.
“Micron continues to progress on creating a more profitable product mix while maintaining its bit market share, but expects headwinds in the first half of 2021. We are raising our fair value estimate for Micron to $50 per share from $48, due to improved rebound expectations in the latter half of 2021 and beyond, but we recommend waiting for a greater margin of safety before investing,” he wrote at the time.