MU at $746, 120% YTD, where does the margin of safety actually sit on memory right now?
u/Leading-Equal204 ·
Reddit — r/ValueInvesting
· May 11, 2026 at 04:19
· ⬆ 25 pts
· 💬 33 comments
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AI Summary
Summary
Post analyzes Micron (MU) after 120% YTD rally, questioning the margin of safety given historical cyclicality and elevated valuation (22x forward earnings vs 8-12x peak).
Author is conflicted: acknowledges strong HBM demand and multi-year bookings from hyperscalers but fears AI capex repricing and lack of room for execution error.
Quality assessment: Well-reasoned, data-supported analysis blending cyclical history with current AI thesis. Not a formal DD but thoughtful, skeptical contrarian take.
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Comments33
Upvote %84%
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I keep going back and forth on Micron and figured I'd put my thinking out here. Up 120% YTD, roughly $700B market cap as of Friday, multi year HBM supply already booked through 2026 with prepayment agreements from hyperscalers. That last piece is what I haven't seen before in this name. Memory has always been a brutal cyclical and the bull thesis is that AI structurally changes the demand profile by making memory the bottleneck instead of compute.
The bear case isn't that demand is fake. It's that the entire AI capex cycle gets repriced if cloud monetization disappoints in 2027. If hyperscaler capex pulls back from $400B+ to something like $250B, MU's HBM book gets renegotiated and the multiple compresses fast. Burry's not wrong that this looks like late stage froth in places.What I can't get comfortable with is paying 22x forward earnings on something that, in every prior cycle, has traded at 8 to 12x at peak.
Even if you assume the cycle doesn't break, you're paying for perfect execution. DA Davidson's $1,000 target requires HBM4 ramping on schedule, HBM5 winning the next socket battle against Samsung and SK Hynix, and AI capex holding. Possible. Not high margin of safety. I owned this in 2018 and got out too early at $50. So fwiw I'm biased toward not chasing. But I'd genuinely like to hear the bull side. What's the path to $1k that doesn't require 3+ years of perfect execution?
MU trades at 22x forward earnings vs historical peak of 8-12x; upside depends on perfect HBM4/5 execution and sustained $400B+ hyperscaler capex. Historically, memory cyclicals compress multiples when demand normalizes. The current risk/reward skews negative even if the bull case partially materializes. No clear edge to chase gains; low margin of safety suggests avoiding new longs and waiting for a better entry or clearer cycle signal. AI demand structurally alters memory cyclicality (bull); HBM wins could still drive earnings growth higher than consensus (bull); author admits bias from missing prior rally.
This Reddit post, published May 11, 2026,
features u/Leading-Equal204
discussing MU.
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