Micron Forecast to Out-Earn Microsoft in Fiscal 2027 on Memory Prices

Apple is preparing to raise prices on its products to offset surging costs for memory and storage chips, with CEO Tim Cook calling the situation a "hundred-year flood" in an exclusive interview with The Wall Street Journal. Cook said price increases are "unavoidable" and that the company has been trying to shield customers but the situation has become "unsustainable," though he declined to specify timing, magnitude or which products will be affected; Apple's next major launch is expected in September with the iPhone 18 lineup. The Wall Street Journal reported that prices for memory and storage chips have quadrupled since last year as demand from the rapid buildout of AI servers intensified competition for the same key chips used in consumer devices. TechInsights estimates that if Apple passes on the higher costs while protecting its margins, the next iPhone Pro model could cost roughly $270 more, and Morgan Stanley estimates smartphone and PC prices in the U.S. could rise 15% this year. Other major device makers including Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Nintendo have already raised prices.

Micron stock jumped nearly 5% in early trading Monday before retreating to about a 1.8% gain as of 10:10 a.m. ET, after Stifel analyst Brian Chin reiterated his buy rating and his $1,500 price target on the chipmaker. With barely a week left before Micron reports Q4 earnings on Sept. 30, Chin looked ahead to how the semiconductor memory maker might fare, noting that Wall Street analysts on average predict sales growth of 350% to $51 billion and earnings growth of 10x to $31.35 per share. Chin does not necessarily disagree with those numbers and thinks Micron might even beat them, but he warns investors to prepare for a more measured rate of upside than in recent quarters, meaning earnings beats that are smaller than investors have come to expect. The analyst attributes the shift to more of Micron's revenue coming from supply agreements with locked-in pricing, which makes results more predictable and less likely to surprise to the upside, while adding that the durability of this memory upcycle continues to be under-appreciated. Chin said DRAM and HBM markets remain undersupplied and that 15% to 20% growth in chip volume through 2027 is not unreasonable, with profit margins continuing to trend higher.

Micron Technology is set to report its fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter results on Sept. 30, with consensus estimates calling for $31.35 in earnings per share on revenue of $51 billion, slightly above the midpoint of the company's own guidance of $50 billion in revenue and $31.00 in earnings per share. The memory specialist's shares have already climbed 256% in 2026 and are up more than 23% since the start of August. PwC projects cumulative AI infrastructure spending through 2050 will reach $31.6 trillion, with annual data center capital expenditure hitting $800 billion in 2026, while Goldman Sachs estimates DRAM demand will exceed supply by 5% in 2026 and 5.9% in 2027. Analysts expect Micron's revenue to rise 317% year over year in the current quarter to $56.9 billion, with earnings per share up 7.3x to $34.95. The stock trades at 23 times earnings and a forward multiple of 6.5.