** Micron Technology MU.O shares climbing >1% to fresh intraday record high on Weds ahead of qtrly results due after the bell, with focus on demand for its AI memory chips
** MU shares, which have now surged ~64% YTD, closed above $500 bln market-cap level for the first time on Tues
** MU expected to report roughly 150% jump in fiscal Q2 rev to $20.07 bln and adj EPS of $9.31, vs $1.56 a yr ago, per LSEG
** In Dec, co forecast rev well above estimates on AI chip demand; earlier this week, MU said it began high-volume production of HBM4 memory chips
** TD Cowen in note on Mon said it expects MU to post a "strong beat", adding that majority of long-term stock returns could be driven by a re-rating
** Stock recently traded at 9x fwd earnings, compared to the likes of Nvidia NVDA.O at 21x and AMD AMD.O at 25x, per LSEG data
** Avg rating of 44 analysts is 'buy', broken down as 40 'buy' or 'strong buy' recommendations, 2 'hold' and 2 'sell'
** Median PT of $450.00 is below stock's recent price of $467.87
(Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)
((lance.tupper@tr.com 1-646-279-6380))