Computer memory maker Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) will report third-quarter earnings Thursday night. Holding memory-related stocks has not been much fun for a couple of years -- is the turning point here yet?
What Fools say:
Here's how Micron's Motley Fool CAPS rating stacks up against some of its peers and competitors:
Market Cap (billions)
Trailing P/E Ratio
CAPS Rating
Micron
$5.63
N/A
***
SanDisk (Nasdaq: SNDK)
$4.69
21.1
****
Tessera Technologies (Nasdaq: TSRA)
$0.82
22.9
***
STEC (Nasdaq: STEC)
$0.65
111.4
**
SMART Modular Technologies (Nasdaq: SMOD)
$0.23
9.4
*****
Data taken from Motley Fool CAPS and Yahoo Finance on June 25, 2008.
CAPS All-Star player camistocks thinks that "we have seen the lows in the current cycle for semiconductors. Buy them now while everything seems gloomy and sell them in 1-2 years when earnings will be just fabulous." Most of our bullish players heap praise on an undervalued industry rather than on Micron as an individual operator.
What management does:
It can be very, very difficult to grow sales in a commodity business that experiences dramatic cuts to average selling prices nearly every month. Forget about generating cash or GAAP profits. With that said, the worst of this lengthy oversupply situation may be over.
Margins
11/06
3/07
5/07
8/07
11/07
2/08
Gross
24.5%
25.7%
21.9%
19%
11.3%
4.3%
Operating
3.3%
2.9%
(1.6%)
(5.1%)
(11.1%) Continued... |