Mizuho Securities has raised Micron Technology's target price from $155 to $182 while maintaining its "outperform" rating, ahead of the company's fourth-quarter earnings announcement on September 23rd. The analyst team led by Vijay Rakesh cited the upgrade as primarily driven by enhanced valuation of Micron's High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) business and optimistic expectations for the Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) and NAND flash memory markets.

Mizuho's analysis team emphasizes that as two core memory types, DRAM and NAND continue to show improving pricing environments. Following recent capacity cuts by major suppliers and intensifying supply constraints driven by artificial intelligence demand, Micron may cease providing DRAM/NAND quotations, with DRAM prices potentially achieving 20-30% gains from current levels.

On the business front, NVIDIA's GB300 product orders have exceeded expectations. During the July quarter shipments, GB300 (12-inch 288GB HBM3e) accounted for approximately 25% of the mix, while GB200 (192GB 8-inch HBM3e) is expected to represent over 50% in the October quarter. This development is anticipated to provide upside potential for Micron's August and November quarterly results.

Regarding technology advancement, the analyst team believes Micron is positioned to maintain its status as one of only two qualified HBM4 suppliers, as Samsung Electronics currently lacks the necessary qualification. It has been revealed that SK Hynix and Micron have begun delivering initial HBM4 samples to NVIDIA for the Rubin platform, with mass production expected by late second quarter to early third quarter of 2026.

Notably, HBM4 pricing will be higher than HBM3e, and Micron has previously confirmed sample deliveries to customers. Additionally, the near-line solid-state drive (SSD) market is benefiting from extended hard disk drive (HDD) delivery cycles of over one year, further supporting the overall positive trend in the memory market.