Micron Technology 2Q Results May Be Better Than Expected
By PAULA L. STEPANKOWSKY
March 10, 1999
Dow Jones Newswires
SEATTLE -- Fiscal 1999 second-quarter results for Micron Technology Inc. (MU) could come in better than analysts surveyed by First Call Corp. expect, Kipp Bedard, the company's vice president for corporate affairs, hinted Wednesday.
At a conference for investors here sponsored by U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, Bedard told Dow Jones that he couldn't comment on estimates from analysts surveyed by First Call that the memory chip maker would lose a mean of 2 cents a share in the quarter ended March 4.
However, he said that throughout the quarter, analysts have moved their numbers to be more positive.
"From the point where they were expecting a loss, we ended the quarter with higher shipments," Bedard said.
He also declined to comment on estimates the largest U.S. maker of DRAMs would earn a mean of 19 cents a share for the 1999 fiscal year.
In the second quarter of the 1998 fiscal year ended Feb. 26, the Boise, Idaho, company reported a loss of $48 million, or 23 cents a share, on revenue of $755.4 million. In all of 1998, the company reported a loss of $216.4 million, or $1.10 a share, on revenues of $3.01 billion.
Micron is the largest U.S. maker of DRAMs and has been suffering in the past two to three years from a worldwide glut of memory chips. Prices have begun to improve modestly in the past several quarters.
In his presentation, Bedard said that pricing has been somewhat stable quarter to quarter for Micron, although the spot price for DRAMs now is between $9.20 and $9.30 per chip, compared with about $9.80 before Christmas. Contract chip prices are about $9 now, compared with between $9.40 and $9.45 before Christmas.
He said, however, that it's difficult to predict where prices will go in the future.
"We can just keep an eye on costs," he said. "That's one of the few things we can control."
The surge in DRAM capacity expansion that swamped the market in 1996 also appears to be over, at least for now, he said.
Bedard said the company continues to believe it is nine to 12 months ahead of its competition in developing smaller chips. He said about 15% of the company's production is at 0.18 microns with 70% of production at 0.21 microns.
The DRAM assets Micron bought from Texas Instrument Inc. (TXN) have been merged into the company and the first silicon coming from those plants "looks very good," Bedard said.
Bedard said while there is a lot of concern about the outlook for PC unit sales right now, Micron's products are increasingly being used in PC peripherals, TV set top boxes, or for such purposes as graphics and the Internet.
In addition to DRAMs, Micron Technology makes dynamic random access memory chips, static and video RAMs and other semiconductor memory products. Its units include Micron Electronics Inc. (MUEI), which makes personal computers.
-By Paula L. Stepankowsky; 360-636-2008 |
