Mizuho Securities analyst Vijay Rakesh lifted his price target for Micron (MU) from $195 to $300, implying 24.4% upside potential. Rakesh maintained his Buy rating ahead of the chipmaker’s Q1FY26 results, citing robust pricing and margin expansion in conventional DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), alongside AI-fueled demand tailwinds in NAND flash memory.
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Rakesh is a five-star analyst on TipRanks, ranking #10 out of 10,191 analysts tracked. He has a 69% success rate and an impressive average return per rating of 40.10%.
Micron Faces a Positive Outlook Ahead of Results
Micron, a top memory chip maker, is expected to release its Q1 results after the market closes on Wednesday, December 17. The Street expects Micron to post adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $3.93, up 119% from $1.79 posted in Q1FY25. Also, sales are forecasted to jump 45% year-over-year to $12.82 billion.
Rakesh remains a longtime Micron bull, highlighting that Micron is poised to gain from a DRAM market rebound in 2026. DRAM powers PCs, servers, and consumer devices, with prices up 15% to 20% quarter-over-quarter due to supply shortages and strengthening demand. He also emphasized Micron’s lead in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), which is essential for Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD (AMD) AI accelerators, and is expected to sustain margins above 30%.
Micron’s NAND flash business also benefits from AI data center growth. Hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services (AMZN) and Google (GOOGL) are expanding storage for generative AI, driving demand for Micron’s high-density enterprise SSDs. With industry NAND utilization near 90%, Rakesh predicts 10% to 15% price gains into 2026.
Is Micron Stock a Buy Ahead of Earnings?
Analysts remain highly optimistic about Micron’s long-term prospects. On TipRanks, MU stock has a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 27 Buys and three Hold ratings. The average Micron price target of $257.52 implies 6.8% upside potential from current levels. Year-to-date, MU stock has surged over 187%.
