Micron Technology shares climbed 4 per cent in morning session on Monday after Morgan Stanley upgraded the memory chipmaker to “equal-weight” from “underweight”.
At 12:37 p.m. ED, Micron Technology stock was trading higher 3.25 per cent, or $4.07, at $129.36.
Morgan Stanley also raised the price target for Micron shares to $130.00 from a previous target of $98.00.
“Remaining negative for too long on Micron was a mistake. We still are not positive, but we should have foreseen the fundamental and narrative implications of the strength in AI specialty memory,” said analysts led by Joseph Moore.
The brokerage also predicted that the chipmaker could announce positive earnings this quarter due to the ongoing ramp-up phase of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supply.
The chipmaker’s revenues from artificial intelligence (AI) related HBM demand is expected to double next year, it added.
The brokerage also said that it underestimated the importance of HBM in turning around the base business.
Further, it expressed a growing optimism regarding the NAND flash memory market.
Pointing to the lack of new spending in this area, Morgan Stanley said it could make NAND a major driver of Micron’s growth in the next year.
The market for HBM is led by South Korean companies SK Hynix and Samsung.
Nasdaq-listed Micron Technology is a leading provider of semiconductor solutions, including DRAM and NAND memory products.
Morgan Stanley said it has not upgraded Micron Technology to “overweight” as the company has not updated its long-term earnings expectations.
At 11:39 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 65.56 points, or 0.16 per cent, at 40,069.15, the S&P 500 was up 20.46 points, or 0.39 per cent, at 5,323.73, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 112.32 points, or 0.67 per cent, at 16,798.29.
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