Micron Rises 6% as Bulls Tout Its Bargain Valuation and Buyback Firepower; Seagate and Western Digital Jump 11%
Micron trades at a single-digit earnings multiple while sitting on a huge buyback authorization, yet the hard drive makers are rallying even harder. Is the memory giant a bargain, or is a cheap multiple warning that peak earnings are near?
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Memory and storage stocks are rallying from a sharp post-midterm selloff, and value investors are zeroing in on Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU | MU Price Prediction) for its low earnings multiple and its buyback capacity. Micron stock is at $733.98, up 6% in afternoon trading. That gain recovers only part of the ground Micron lost during last week’s chip rout.
AI shares are drawing investors back, though NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) is moving on its own company-specific news. Against that background, Micron trades at a trailing 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 9x and a forward P/E of 4x. Both multiples come from market data and shift with the share price.
Micron’s Buyback Math Has Value Investors Circling
CNBC’s Halftime Report gave the bull case a loud coverage on Friday, November 6, when a panelist argued that Micron will buy back $100 billion of stock at its depressed multiple. That figure reflects one panelist’s opinion. What Micron has actually authorized is a $35.16 billion share repurchase program that starts December 9.
Micron’s Q4 FY2026 report on September 30 gives the bulls plenty to work with. The company’s revenue climbed 379.3% year over year (YoY) to $54.23 billion, and its free cash flow reached $33.2 billion for the quarter. For Q1 FY2027, management guided Micron’s revenue to $61.5 billion, plus or minus $1.5 billion.
On Micron’s post-earnings call, President and Chief Operating Officer Manish Bhatia stated, “We are seeing stronger demand drivers than we’ve seen before.” Bhatia added, “As we’ve gone through working on our fiscal year ’27, we commented that we have more than 75% of our shipments committed for the year.”
Seagate and Western Digital Outrun Micron’s Bounce
Hard drive makers are rallying harder than Micron, which cuts against the valuation-first angle. Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) stock is at $512.44, up 11%. Meanwhile, Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) stock is at $291.63, up 11%.
Hyperscaler and AI storage demand continues to power both names. On October 27, Seagate reported Q1 FY2027 revenue of $4.23 billion, up 61% YoY, and disclosed that a major cloud provider had qualified its heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) Mozaic platform. Western Digital’s October 22 report showed revenue of $4.38 billion, up 55.5% YoY, alongside a 17% dividend increase.
By the forward measure, the drive makers carry higher multiples than Micron. At 24x, Seagate’s trailing P/E sits far above the other three names, with its forward P/E at 12x. Micron and Western Digital share a trailing P/E of 9x, though Western Digital’s forward multiple stands at 11x.
SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) is also in focus. The flash specialist has the lowest trailing P/E of the four at 7x, plus a forward P/E of 4x. An eight-for-one stock split for SanDisk takes effect on November 19.
How Micron’s Memory Model Differs From the Drive Makers
Micron makes dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and NAND flash, including high-bandwidth memory (HBM) that pairs with AI accelerators. Memory pricing tends to swing with industry supply, which gives Micron’s earnings a sharper cyclical edge. Strategic customer agreements now give the company multi-year demand visibility.
Seagate and Western Digital sell mass-capacity hard disk drives to cloud operators and don’t manufacture DRAM or NAND. Both drive makers lift capacity by packing more data onto each disk, and both have locked up much of their future supply under long-term customer agreements. SanDisk, spun out of Western Digital, now runs as a pure-play flash storage company, which puts it closest to Micron’s NAND business.
Micron’s Cheap Multiple Faces a Cyclical Test
CNBC’s Mike Santoli summed up the skeptics’ view: “If the market believed the earnings, it wouldn’t be under four times.” Memory is a cyclical business, and a low P/E can signal that Micron’s earnings sit near a peak. Bears also point to Micron’s heavy capital spending and its reliance on the AI expansion.
The bulls counter with Micron’s own outlook, which management described on its post-earnings call this way: “We made the statement that we really don’t have line of sight to when supply and demand balance.” Micron’s next test is whether its earnings hold up as the new repurchase program starts buying up shares. A conservative investment approach could make sense while the debate over Micron’s peak earnings plays out.
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David Moadel is financial writer specializing in stocks, ETFs, options, precious metals, and Bitcoin. David has written well over 1,000 articles for leading online publications, helping investors understand markets, income strategies, and risk.His work has appeared in The Motley Fool, InvestorPlace, U.S. News & World Report, TipRanks, ValueWalk, Benzinga, Market Realist, TalkMarkets, Finmasters, 24/7 Wall St., and others.With a master’s degree in education, David has taught at the elementary, high school, and college levels. That teaching background shapes his writing style: clear, educational, and practical. David has also built a loyal social-media audience by providing trustworthy financial content on YouTube, X/Twitter, and StockTwits.
