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Technology Stocks : Micron Only Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Graybill who wrote (51473)	6/21/2000 6:38:00 PM
From: nolimitz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 53903

Memory chips are still a boom-and-bust business, but investors are betting big that Micron Technology, which reports earnings tomorrow, and others are still on the upswing segment of the cycle. Shares of Micron, one of the largest memory makers, have surged this week amid enthusiastic reports from analysts that prices will continue to rise because of a growing shortage of DRAM, the type of memory found inside PCs. The stock rose 16 percent to $89.88 from $77.38 during the first two days of trading and traded as high as $94.50 today before closing at around $91 a share. Earlier this week, Salomon Smith Barney analyst Jonathan Joseph upped his earnings estimates, predicting Micron will report $1.52 billion in sales and post earnings of 38 cents per share, a six-cent increase from his prior estimate. Analysts have been looking for Micron to earn 34 cents a share, according to the consensus estimate from First Call/Thomson Financial. Depressed for three straight years, memory prices came out of their slump last September in the wake of the Taiwan earthquake. Prices once again began to slide in November. Since May, however, memory prices have picked up in anticipation of strong PC buying in the second half coupled with shortages. Memory is still actually less expensive than it was in January, but climbing rapidly. The average spot, or surplus market price for 128-megabit 133-MHz SDRAM, the type of memory found in high-end Athlon or Pentium III computers, for instance, rose 19 percent, from $14.06 to $16.74, from June 8 to June 15, according to the American IC Exchange. "We believe the recent upsurge in prices is driven by an expected DRAM shortage in the second half of 2000," stated a Merrill Lynch report from earlier this week. Joseph said Micron is seeing improved yields from its overseas plants and is also selling more EDO (extended data out) chips, a flavor of memory chips that is commanding prices roughly double that of SDRAM. "These are positive trends that will continue (into the coming quarters)," Joseph said. Analysts have long said that memory prices should head higher during the second half of this year as demand begins to outstrip capacity. However, the improved outlook for the second half of the year hasn't stopped two major Micron shareholders from cashing in. Texas Instruments, which sold its memory chip unit to Micron in 1998 has been selling, as has Intel, which yesterday reported that it would have $1.6 billion in higher-than-expected income from stock sales, predominately that of Micron. Joseph estimated that Intel may have sold as much as 20 million of its 25 million shares. yahoo.cnet.com

To: John Graybill who wrote (51473)	6/21/2000 7:03:00 PM
From: Don Green	Respond to of 53903

Micron looks to cash in on rising memory prices By Ian Fried Staff Writer, CNET News.com June 21, 2000, 2:50 p.m. PT URL: news.cnet.com Memory chips are still a boom-and-bust business, but investors are betting big that Micron Technology, which reports earnings tomorrow, and others are still on the upswing segment of the cycle. Shares of Micron, one of the largest memory makers, have surged this week amid enthusiastic reports from analysts that prices will continue to rise because of a growing shortage of DRAM, the type of memory found inside PCs. The stock rose 16 percent to $89.88 from $77.38 during the first two days of trading and traded as high as $94.50 today before closing at around $91 a share. Earlier this week, Salomon Smith Barney analyst Jonathan Joseph upped his earnings estimates, predicting Micron will report $1.52 billion in sales and post earnings of 38 cents per share, a six-cent increase from his prior estimate. Analysts have been looking for Micron to earn 34 cents a share, according to the consensus estimate from First Call/Thomson Financial. Depressed for three straight years, memory prices came out of their slump last September in the wake of the Taiwan earthquake. Prices once again began to slide in November. Since May, however, memory prices have picked up in anticipation of strong PC buying in the second half coupled with shortages. Memory is still actually less expensive than it was in January, but climbing rapidly. The average spot, or surplus market price for 128-megabit 133-MHz SDRAM, the type of memory found in high-end Athlon or Pentium III computers, for instance, rose 19 percent, from $14.06 to $16.74, from June 8 to June 15, according to the American IC Exchange. "We believe the recent upsurge in prices is driven by an expected DRAM shortage in the second half of 2000," stated a Merrill Lynch report from earlier this week. Joseph said Micron is seeing improved yields from its overseas plants and is also selling more EDO (extended data out) chips, a flavor of memory chips that is commanding prices roughly double that of SDRAM. "These are positive trends that will continue (into the coming quarters)," Joseph said. Analysts have long said that memory prices should head higher during the second half of this year as demand begins to outstrip capacity. However, the improved outlook for the second half of the year hasn't stopped two major Micron shareholders from cashing in. Texas Instruments, which sold its memory chip unit to Micron in 1998, has been selling, as has Intel, which yesterday reported that it would have $1.6 billion in higher-than-expected income from stock sales, predominately that of Micron. Joseph estimated that Intel may have sold as much as 20 million of its 25 million shares.

To: John Graybill who wrote (51473)	6/22/2000 12:57:00 AM
From: DJBEINO	Respond to of 53903

Kobe Steel Reiterates Support for DRAM Venture With Micron 6/21/00 7:31:00 PM Source: Bloomberg News Tokyo, June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Kobe Steel Ltd., a Japanese steel maker that gets 60 percent of its revenue from non-steel businesses, has reiterated its support for a chipmaking joint venture with Micron Technology Inc., the biggest U.S. maker of computer-memory chips. The statement follows media reports that Boise, Idaho-based Micron may sell its stake in the Japanese venture to Fujitsu Ltd., Japan's largest computer maker and support service provider. Speculation that the venture's ownership would change arose following a report by financial news network CNBC, which said Banc of America Securities analyst Rick Whittington told clients the sale was possible. According to the reports, co-owner Kobe Steel would sell its interest in the plant, which produces dynamic random access memories, the main memories in computers, to convert it to making ASIC chips, CNBC reported, citing Whittington as saying. ASIC chips are specialized chips designed for specific applications, such as decoding streaming video. ''We are not considering selling it to anybody,'' Kobe Steel spokesman Takuji Hashimoto said. The venture, called KMT Semiconductor Ltd., was founded in 1998. As of January, it was able to produce 10 million units of 64 megabit-equivalent DRAMs per month. Micron also said it isn't selling the stake and that it's pleased with the venture's performance. Neither Micron or Kobe have approached Fujitsu about the sale, Fujitsu spokeswoman Naomi Ogawa said. Fujitsu is aiming to obtain technology to make products that are in high demand though it may not be interested in investing in DRAM production. The Tokyo-based company yesterday said it will buy the chip design division of NKK Corp. to help meet demand for chips from network equipment and mobile digital device makers. The division designs system LSIs, customized multifunctional chips. +++++++++++++ Micron Technology, reports earnings tomorrow