Micron Technology stock dropped 10% on Tuesday ahead of earnings as Bank of America raised its price target to $1,500 from $950, signaling sustained bullish momentum despite the near-term pullback in mu stock.
The 58% target increase reflects BofA’s updated outlook for the global semiconductor industry. The firm now expects the sector to generate a total addressable market of $2.7 trillion by 2030, up from its previous forecast of $2.3 trillion, driven primarily by stronger growth in memory and data center chips where Micron stands to benefit from accelerating AI-related spending.
BofA noted that the increase is driven by stronger growth expectations for memory and data center chips, two areas where Micron is positioned to benefit from rising AI-related spending. The brokerage also sees additional support coming from a recovery in automotive and industrial markets, which have remained relatively weak in recent years.
Strategic Partnership Accelerates AI Positioning
Micron announced a strategic partnership with Anthropic on June 22, spanning memory and storage AI architecture. The agreement includes a multi-year supply contract for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), DRAM, and solid-state drives, along with Micron’s adoption of Anthropic’s Claude models across its operations and a strategic investment by Micron in Anthropic’s Series H funding round.
The companies said they will work together to optimize how memory and storage systems support AI training and inference workloads, with the goal of improving performance, energy efficiency, and overall AI economics. The partnership aligns Anthropic’s growing compute needs with Micron’s memory and storage technologies as demand for advanced AI systems continues to increase.
Analyst Momentum Building Across Wall Street
BofA’s latest upgrade is the second in over a month. The firm had raised its target to $950 from $500 in May, and Micron shares have surged past that level following a 36% gain since then. Multiple other analysts have joined the buying chorus recently. TD Cowen raised its price target to $1,500 from $660 on June 15, citing CPU strength. Wedbush lifted its target to $1,300 from $550, citing higher NAND and DRAM pricing in the current quarter. Raymond James analyst Melissa Fairbanks raised her target to $1,100 from $530, citing unprecedented demand and rational capacity discipline across the memory industry.
Micron is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday. According to analyst expectations, the company is projected to report earnings per share of $20.28 on revenue of $35.3 billion, compared to EPS of $1.91 on revenue of $9.3 billion a year earlier.
The stock is up 283% year-to-date, significantly outpacing the broader market and the semiconductor sector, which is up 170% during the same period. The strong rally reflects investor conviction that Micron’s position in AI-driven memory demand will sustain growth for years to come.
Sources
- Yahoo Finance — BofA price target increase to $1,500, stock decline on June 23, and semiconductor TAM forecast update
- Micron Technology Investor Relations — Strategic partnership announcement with Anthropic on June 22
- Barchart.com — Raymond James analyst upgrade to $1,100 price target
- TheStreet — TD Cowen analyst upgrade and Wedbush target increase details
