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Here's How Much You'd Have If You Invested $1000 in Micron a Decade Ago

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For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. Not only can it impact your investment portfolio, but it can also help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Micron (MU - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to MU for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Micron's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Micron's main business drivers.

Idaho-based Micron Technology has established itself as one of the leading worldwide providers of semiconductor memory solutions.

Through global brands, namely Micron, Crucial and Ballistix, Micron manufactures and markets high-performance memory and storage technologies including Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), NAND flash memory, NOR Flash, 3D XPoint memory and other technologies. Its solutions are used in leading-edge computing, consumer, networking and mobile products.

A major portion of the revenues is derived from DRAM sales. The company's mission is to be the most efficient and innovative global provider of semiconductor memory solutions.

Micron reported revenues of $23.4 billion in fiscal 2019. The company has four reportable segments:

Compute and Networking Business Unit (CNBU): The unit comprises of DRAM and NOR Flash products that are sold to the computer, networking, graphics, and cloud server markets, and NAND Flash products which are sold into the networking market. CNBU delivered revenues of $10 billion (43% of total revenues) in fiscal 2019.

Mobile Business Unit (MBU): The unit comprises Micron’s discrete DRAM, discrete NAND and managed NAND (including eMMC and universal flash storage (UFS) solutions) products that are sold to smartphone and other mobile-device markets. MBU generated revenues of $6.4 billion (28%) in fiscal 2019.

Storage Business Unit (SBU): The unit accounts for solid state drives (SSDs) and component-level solutions sold into enterprise and cloud, client and consumer storage markets as well as other discrete storage products sold in component and wafer forms to the removable storage markets. SBU’s revenues grossed $3.8 billion (16%) in fiscal 2019.

Embedded Business Unit (EBU): The unit includes Micron’s discrete DRAM, discrete NAND, managed NAND and NOR products, which are sold to the automotive, industrial and consumer markets. EBU’s revenues logged $3.1 billion (13%) in fiscal 2019.

The company struggles with intense competition from Intel, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Toshiba Memory and Western Digital Corporation.

Bottom Line

Putting together a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of research, patience, and a little bit of risk. For Micron, if you bought shares a decade ago, you're likely feeling really good about your investment today.

A $1000 investment made in March 2011 would be worth $9,281.10, or an 828.11% gain, as of March 18, 2021, according to our calculations. Investors should note that this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.

The S&P 500 rose 212.01% and the price of gold increased 18.17% over the same time frame in comparison.

Analysts are anticipating more upside for MU.

Micron is witnessing growing demand for memory chips from cloud-computing providers and acceleration in 5G (fifth-generation) adoptions. Rising mix of high-value solutions, enhancement in customer engagement and improvement in cost structure are growth drivers as well. Further, 5G adoption beyond mobile is likely to spur demand for memory and storage, particularly in IoT (Internet of Things) devices and wireless infrastructure. Nonetheless, Micron’s near-term profitability is likely to hurt by its planned salary hikes and additional pre-qualification related expenses during the second half of fiscal 2021. Additionally, higher level of customer inventory in the cloud, graphics and enterprise market is a key threat. Further, soft server demand from several enterprise OEM (original equipment manufacturer) customers is a concern.

Shares have gained 10.12% over the past four weeks and there have been 9 higher earnings estimate revisions for fiscal 2021 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.


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