Micron Technology stock racked up a comfortable gain with solid trading volume on an otherwise quiet session after Thanksgiving. Earnings from Dell Technologies and HP Inc. earlier this week may have something to do with it.
Shares of Micron jumped 2.6% on Friday, making it the top performer in the S&P 500 in the premarket session.
The memory-chip maker has gained 174% this year amid a surge in demand for memory hardware. Dell and HP’s quarterly results showed Wall Street that demand is real.
HP issued a weaker-than-expected 2026 earnings forecast on Tuesday afternoon, which sent the stock lower on Wednesday. Memory prices were a culprit, CEO Enrique Lores told Barron’s.
“From a supply perspective, we’re in a good position, but clearly we see price increases,” Lores said. “We think that the impact is going to be around 30 cents for the full year, so it’s fairly significant.”
While that is bad news for HP, it is the exact thesis that has led so many investors to buy up Micron. HP lists it as a supplier.
Dell stock, meanwhile, jumped 5.8% on Wednesday after the company’s earnings beat consensus estimates. Analysts concluded that while Dell is also seeing higher costs for memory components, it is just dealing with them more effectively than is HP. Micron is a Dell supplier, too.
“Dell’s solid execution and supply chain management enabled it to deliver upside to margin, countering bearish sentiment regarding the pressure from increasing memory chip costs,” wrote Raymond James analyst Simon Leopold in a research note.
Fellow Dell suppliers Western Digital and Seagate Technology Holdings were also on the rise Friday, climbing 2% and 1.7%, respectively, though on much lower trading volume. The pair make related data-storage products like hard-disk drives. Prices and demand for those have also taken off this year.
Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com
