Micron Gets the Nod from Barron's Not Once but Twice
ING economist Min Joo Kang argued on Monday that the memory-chip boom should keep going at least into next year.
We keep close tabs on the companies that comprise our thematic and targeted exposure models here at Tematica, but it’s not an often-occurring event when one company gets multiple nods from Barron’s on the same day. At least if that company isn’t Nvidia (NVDA).
In a very recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, outgoing Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook tipped the company plans to raise product prices to offset the surging costs of memory and storage chips. Not the first indication that rising demand from AI and data center applications is driving memory supply constraints, which in turn is fueling price increases for those suppliers.
“Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” he said. “We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable.”
And one of those beneficiaries of that memory paint point will report its quarterly results this week.
That company is one of the current quarter residents for our EPS Diplomats basket - Micron (MU).
The position has been an explosive one with its quarter-to-date return of more than 220%.
Here’s the thing: it’s not the only position in the basket with a QTD gain of more than 100%.
We’ll use that as a quick commercial break for the upcoming reconstitution of the EPS Diplomats basket and our decision to offer a limited-time offering for new subscribers.
Based on the model’s YTD return of more than 70% compared to 10% for the S&P 500, it’s probably something you don’t want to miss.
Back to Micron
As the headline for this post indicates, ahead of Micron’s quarterly earnings report after the market close on Wednesday (June 24), Barron’s was out with not one but two articles discussing the company and the memory market this morning.
While we’ll share the headlines and links with you, the standout comment to use came from ING economist Min Joo Kang, who argued in a research note on the South Korean economy today that the memory-chip boom should keep going at least into next year.
“With 2026 HBM [high-bandwidth memory] prices rising by 20-30%, triple-digit chip export growth should continue into early 2027,” wrote Kang.
As for those two Barron’s articles, here you go:
Micron Earnings Will Likely Whip Up AI Frenzy. Why That’s Bad for Markets.
Micron Stock Jumps Again But Analyst Warns Memory Chips Won’t Rise Forever
If that second headline raises an eyebrow following the comment from Kang we shared above, it’s important to remember that, like all of the models here at Tematica, the baskets are reconstituted quarterly.
When it comes to the EPS Diplomats basket, that means each quarter we shake and bake the largest 1,000 companies by market cap to ferret out the ones that sit at the crossroads of having delivered superior EPS growth in the past, and are poised to do so in the future.
With Micron expected to deliver EPS near $61 in 2026, up from $8.29 in 2025, one can understand how the stock landed in the EPS Diplomats basket, but that doesn’t mean it will be part of the basket long-term or even the one for Q3 2026.
It may be cheeky to say, but you’ll just have to subscribe to find out.