Micron (MU) news that moved the stock

What happened

Samsung reported preliminary Q3 results with a ninefold jump in operating profit, yet the print fell below market expectations, per the WSJ, sending the stock down 2.4% and dragging Asian tech lower. U.S. chip makers fell premarket as the market treated the miss as a read-through on the red-hot memory cycle. Fellow memory plays Micron, Sandisk and SK Hynix were flagged by IBD as the names to watch Thursday; Micron had jumped 4.1% Wednesday on D.A. Davidson's $3,000 price target. TSMC reports sales early Thursday, keeping the sector news flow dense.

What happened

Samsung Electronics projected a 783% jump in third-quarter operating profit from a year earlier, beating analysts' estimates, as booming demand for artificial-intelligence chips drove strong memory earnings. The world's largest memory chipmaker estimated an operating profit of 107.4 trillion won ($80.17 billion) for the July-September period, compared with an LSEG SmartEstimate of 106.1 trillion won, according to a regulatory filing. Third-quarter revenue is expected to rise 127% to 195 trillion won from a year earlier. The company said prices have soared due to tight supply of conventional DRAM and NAND chips as well as growing demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and that the supply gap is expected to persist into 2027. Samsung will release detailed results, including a division breakdown, later this month.

What happened

D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria raised his price target on Micron to $3,000 from $2,100, a 43% increase and a new Street-high-style marker. Micron shares advanced 3.6-4% to about $1,084-1,086, with the stock having roughly tripled this year. The rerating came even as the semiconductor industry faced a threatened strike in Taiwan, underscoring how dominant the memory-demand narrative is right now.

What happened

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that Seagate Technology and Japan's Toshiba have entered a bidding contest to acquire TDK Corp's business that produces magnetic heads for hard-disk drives. The deal news hit an already-weak memory sector: Seagate shares sank about 9% and Western Digital fell roughly 6.5-7% as investors weighed the cost of a bidding war and broader fears that memory prices may be peaking.