The semiconductor shortage has been a boost for the Micron stock price. However, MU somehow suffered steep losses after announcing impressive earnings.
Micron Technology (MU:NASDAQ) closed at $80.91, lower by $4.87 (-5.73%)
Ahead of yesterday’s Micron earnings announcement, MU was in the process of recovering from a 5 month low. On June 21st, MU traded down to $75.71, a price last seen in January.
In the 8 days that followed, Micron gained 12.70%, closing higher on 7 occasions. MU closed out Wednesday’s session at $84.98, just below the 50-day moving average at $85.71. Therefore, the stock was well-positioned for another run at this years $96.96 high. Which interestingly was just $0.54 below the all-time high price, set during the peak of the tech bubble in the late 1990s.
For the quarter ending on the 3rd of June Micron reported revenue of $7.42 billion, an increase of 36% from last year. Furthermore, revenue beat the street’s $7.22 billion consensus estimate.
Additionally, earnings per share came in at $1.88, which was also higher than the $1.72 consensus estimate.
So on balance, it’s hard to see why the market has reacted in such a negative fashion. However, notably, UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri lowered his price target for the Micron Technology stock price. That being said, the drop to $110 from $120 still projects plenty of upside for the stock.
On the daily chart, we can see that yesterday’s decline has pushed Micron below the 100-day moving average at $82.18. The last time this happened, MU stock lost 9.5% within three days. Therefore, this must be viewed as a negative development.
Should the price have a similar reaction this time around, the 200-day moving average at $74.89 could be reachable. Although, a strong line of horizontal support around $76.00 should stem any declines. Just below the 200 DMA, a descending trendline is visible at $72.50, which adds to the strong technical support below the market.
Considering the current state of the computer chip industry, a material drop from here would present a buying opportunity. Although, my preference would be to see how the market performs today, following yesterday’s sell-off.
Of course, if the price trades below the 200-day moving average and the trend line at $72.50, I would consider the bullish outlook invalidated
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