Micron Technology (MU) stock posted another comfortable gain, capping a stellar year that saw its shares jump 174% through Wednesday’s close. This huge momentum is driven by a massive surge in demand for memory hardware, and recent earnings reports from major PC makers Dell Technologies (DELL) and HP Inc. (HPQ) confirm that this demand, and the resulting price hikes, are real.
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On Friday, Micron was the second-best performer in the S&P 500, with shares climbing 2.9%. This positive sentiment comes directly from the market recognizing that Micron, as a key memory supplier, benefits from the pricing power stemming from the AI and data center build-out. The company is poised to enjoy high margins and consistent revenue as long as the memory shortage persists.
Dell Stock Jumps on Strong Management
Dell’s stock surged by 5.8% after its earnings comfortably surpassed analyst consensus estimates. The company’s successful quarter showed Wall Street that Dell is effectively navigating the industry-wide increase in memory component costs, which are being driven by explosive demand for AI servers.
Analysts noted that Dell’s solid execution and superior supply chain management helped it deliver upside to its margins. This counters the bearish market sentiment regarding rising component costs. By managing these pressures effectively, Dell demonstrated its resilience despite being a major buyer of memory chips from suppliers like Micron.
HP Forecasts Impact from Higher Prices
In contrast to Dell, HP issued a weaker-than-expected earnings forecast for Fiscal year 2026, which sent its stock lower. CEO Enrique Lores explicitly pointed to the sharp rise in memory prices as a major culprit impacting the company’s profitability.
Lores noted that the price increases are “fairly significant,” estimating the impact to be around 30 cents for the full year. While this is bad news for HP, which buys components from suppliers including Micron, it reinforces the core investment thesis for memory chip producers: they are successfully passing on soaring component costs to customers.
Demand Propels Storage Suppliers
The boom in AI and data center infrastructure is not limited to just DRAM and NAND memory; it is creating a ripple effect across the entire data-storage ecosystem. Prices and demand for hard-disk drives and related products have also taken off this year.
Fellow Dell suppliers, including Western Digital (WDC) and Seagate Technology Holdings (STX), also saw gains on Friday. These companies, which produce data-storage products, are benefiting from the same underlying surge in data center demand that is creating a windfall for Micron and confirming the strength of the current semiconductor pricing cycle.
The financial results from PC giants Dell and HP provide tangible evidence of soaring component costs, validating the enormous stock performance of suppliers like Micron. While rising costs squeeze PC makers’ margins, they confirm a sustained, profitable, and unprecedented pricing cycle for memory chip manufacturers fueled by the global AI infrastructure build-out.
Is Micron Stock a Good Buy?
Micron stock has a consensus Strong Buy rating among 29 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 26 Buy and three Hold recommendations assigned in the last three months. The average MU price target of $228.68 implies 2.85% downside from current levels.
