Micron, the biggest US memory chipmaker (it makes DRAM, NAND and high-performance memory for AI), reported revenue of $54.23 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 (the three months ended Sept. 3) on Sept. 30 (US time). That is about 4.8 times the $11.32 billion of the same quarter a year earlier, and a record. Its revenue outlook for the next quarter also beat market expectations.
Yet the stock slipped in after-hours trading (trading that continues after the regular session closes). Seoul Shinmun reported that it rose more than 1% right after the release, then gave back the gain and edged lower. Seoul Economic Daily reported that it rose slightly, briefly turned to a drop of more than 1%, and was down 0.48% as of 5:47 p.m. Eastern Time, in the middle of after-hours trading (a figure that does not reflect later moves). The outlets also named different reasons for the drop. Seoul Economic Daily pointed to expectations that bonuses would cut margins; Seoul Shinmun to a profitability outlook that fell short and expectations that were already high; and Stocktwits, a US investing news site, to a bigger capital spending outlook. All three point not to last quarter's revenue but to future margins and investment.
- It expects to sell more, but keep a smaller share than hoped
Micron forecast revenue of $61.5 billion (plus or minus $1.5 billion) and adjusted earnings per share of $38.15 for the first quarter of fiscal 2027 (the quarter that began in September). That is about 7.9% and 7.8% above the market expectations of $57 billion and $35.40 compiled by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) (BITPRESS calculation).
The catch is the gross margin (the money left after subtracting product costs from sales, as a percentage of sales). On an adjusted basis it was 87.0% in the fourth quarter, above the market expectation of 86.2%, but the outlook for next quarter is 86.25%, short of the expected 86.7%. Applied to the $61.5 billion revenue outlook, the 0.45-percentage-point gap works out to about $280 million in gross profit (BITPRESS calculation). Micron expects to sell more, but the share it keeps on each sale is a little lower than the market hoped.
0.45 percentage points is a small gap, and the 0.48% after-hours drop is a reading from one moment during trading. The reasons for the drop are also the reports' interpretations. Still, BITPRESS's reading is that even a margin as high as 86.25% can disappoint if it falls short of market expectations.
- The company blamed bonuses and new-plant costs, not slowing demand
According to Seoul Economic Daily, Chief Financial Officer Mark Murphy explained that Micron had decided to raise bonuses and that bonuses are a factor that weighs heavily on the gross margin outlook. On Sept. 11, Micron said it plans to pay its employees in Taiwan bonuses worth 35 to 68 months of their fiscal 2026 salary. The minimum cash award is NT$1.7 million (about KRW 72.37 million).
According to Seoul Shinmun, Murphy cited bonuses and the rising cost of starting up new production facilities, rather than slowing demand, as the reasons margins are falling, and the company expects profitability to improve again after bottoming in the first quarter. It is a familiar scene for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix shareholders. Seoul Economic Daily noted that Micron, like those two companies, now faces the question of rising bonuses.
- Half a year of investment nearly matches last year's total
Micron spent $27.37 billion on capital expenditures (money spent on factory buildings and equipment) over fiscal 2026. That is a net figure, after government incentives and the like. For fiscal 2027, it expects to spend about $11.5 billion in the first quarter alone and about $25 billion in the first half, and it said spending will rise further in the second half. The half-year plan is about 91% of last year's full-year total (BITPRESS calculation; neither the release nor the reports say whether the $25 billion outlook uses the same net basis).
More than half of the added money goes into buildings, not equipment. According to TechM, the aim is to secure cleanrooms (dust-filtered spaces for chip production) sooner, for use from late 2028 onward.
- As plants multiply, when will memory prices turn?
Rising prices propped up this quarter's margin. By Micron's account as reported by TechM, DRAM prices rose by a high-teens percentage from the previous quarter, and NAND prices by about 30%. Stocktwits reported that the 87.0% adjusted margin in the fourth quarter reflected higher selling prices driven by short supply.
Micron expects supply to stay short. It forecast that even if industry DRAM shipments (by capacity) grow more than 20% a year in 2027 and 2028, supply and demand will be tighter than in 2026. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said it is hard to gauge when supply and demand will return to balance. Still, the company expected price increases to slow, and even so expected margins to rise again after the first quarter (as reported by TechM). BITPRESS's reading is that investors' question may shift from "How much is it earning now?" to "Will prices hold once the new plants are running?"
- Revenue once fell 42% in a year from an adjusted margin of 61.4%
Micron's revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018 was $8.44 billion, with an adjusted gross margin of 61.4%. A year later, in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019 (ended Aug. 29, 2019), revenue fell about 42% to $4.87 billion, and the margin was cut in half to 30.6% (BITPRESS calculation). Mehrotra, who was CEO then as well, described fiscal 2019 as a year in which Micron "executed well in a challenging environment."
Some things are different this time. Long-term contracts in which customers commit to volumes in advance (strategic customer agreements) have grown. Customers have committed $32 billion, mostly as cash deposits. Mehrotra said more than 75% of 2027 output is already committed under supply agreements. According to TechM, about three-quarters of the revenue expected from these contracts has a set pricing framework, and more than half of that uses price ranges with a ceiling and a floor. The company says that even at floor prices, margins would be well above the peak margins of past booms.
- BITPRESS Insight
The reasons reports gave for the drop on this earnings day were not last quarter's sales but next quarter's margin, the pace of plant expansion and expectations that were already high. If, as Seoul Shinmun suggested, the stock had already more than tripled this year, it reads as a sign that beating sales expectations alone was not enough. The share Micron keeps and future supply have become the new things to calculate.
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix earnings days can be read in the same three parts. Did the next-quarter revenue outlook beat expectations? Is the margin outlook above or below expectations? How much faster is capital spending growing than last year? The first two show earning power now; the third shows supply a few years out. Even if the first two look good, if the third grows fast, the stock can hesitate despite strong results, as Micron's did this time.
Sources
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000723125/000072312526000018/a2026q4ex991-pressrelease.htm
https://m.sedaily.com/article/20096873
https://www.seoul.co.kr/news/economy/industry/2026/10/01/20261001500009
https://www.techm.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=155740
https://www.techm.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=155741
https://www.techm.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=155742
https://stocktwits.com/news-articles/markets/equity/mu-stock-drops-after-hours-micron-s-heightened-capex-forecast-overpowers-q4-beat-expectation-beating-q1-guidance/cZMFVZfRBLS
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/723125/000072312519000068/a2019q4exhibit991-pressrel.htm
Glossary
After-hours trading — Trading that continues after the regular session closes; the first reaction to earnings released after the close shows up here.
GrossMargin — The money left after subtracting the cost of making products from sales, shown as a percentage of sales.
Adjusted basis — Results that exclude items the company leaves out of its earnings analysis, such as one-time costs and stock-based compensation; they are reported separately from figures under US accounting rules (GAAP).
Capital expenditure — Money spent building factories and buying production equipment; it sets how much can be produced years later.
Cleanroom — A chip production space with dust filtered out of the air; it takes a long time to build, so it governs how fast supply can grow.
Fiscal year — A company's own 12-month accounting year. Micron's fiscal 2026 ended Sept. 3, 2026, so its fiscal 2027 first quarter began in September.
Earnings per share (EPS) — A company's profit divided by its number of shares, showing how much it earned for each share.
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix — South Korea's two biggest memory chipmakers and Micron's main rivals, so Korean investors read Micron's results as a preview of theirs.
BITPRESS articles are information to help your investment decisions, not a recommendation to buy or sell any stock or coin. Investment decisions and their results are your own responsibility.
