After Micron Technology (Micron) released an "earnings surprise" last night, its share price jumped 8% in the aftermarket. This contrasts with Oracle and Broadcom, whose shares plunged after they released results earlier. Experts said Micron's share price rose not only on strong results but also because the "return on investment" (ROI) metric was clearly confirmed.
Micron said on the morning of the 18th, local time, that revenue for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 rose 56% from a year earlier to $13.643 billion (about 20.167 trillion won). It beat the market expectation of $12.95 billion (about 19.1426 trillion won). Operating profit under Non-GAAP was $6.419 billion (about 9.4872 trillion won), up 168% from a year earlier.
Profitability metrics also beat market expectations. The operating margin came in at 47%, up 19.5 percentage points (P) from a year earlier, and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) was $4.78, above the market expectation of $3.95.
Immediately after the results were released, Micron's stock was strong in the aftermarket. Regular-session trading closed at $225.52, down $6.99 (3.01%) from the previous day, but after the results were disclosed it surged more than 8% in the aftermarket to close at $243.74.
This is a different trend from Broadcom, which also logged an "earnings surprise" but saw its share price plunge. On the 11th (local time), Broadcom said fourth-quarter revenue for fiscal year 2025 rose 28% from a year earlier to $18.02 billion (about 26.62 trillion won), and net income jumped 97% to $8.51 billion (12.5769 trillion won), but the stock plummeted 11.43% the next day in regular trading.
The reason the two corporations released the same "earnings surprise" yet showed different stock moves, analysts said, is that investors have begun to weigh AI's growth potential alongside "when investments turn into revenue."
Even though Broadcom released results that beat market expectations, questions arose about profitability. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said at a briefing after the results that "the first-quarter non-AI revenue outlook is unchanged from a year earlier," but added that "rapidly growing AI revenue has a smaller gross margin than non-AI revenue." Investors took this as a signal that the timeline for realizing ROI could be pushed back despite increased AI investment, and the stock slipped.
Micron, by contrast, presented ROI visibility along with strong results. Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said, "Margins increased meaningfully across all of Micron's business units," adding, "In the second quarter of 2026, revenue, margins, EPS, and cash flow will improve and results will also increase."
The company offered second-quarter fiscal year 2026 (Dec. 2025–Feb. 2026) revenue guidance of $18.3 billion to $19.1 billion, well above the market expectation of $14.38 billion. It also guided EPS of $8.42, nearly double the consensus ($4.71).
Regarding this, Summit Insights analyst Kinngai Chan said, "AI-related demand is Micron's biggest growth driver," adding, "This not only improves the company's profitability but also contributes to improving the profitability of non-AI products by prioritizing supply for AI-related demand."
Oracle, on the other hand, released results (an earnings shock) on the 10th that fell short of expectations, and concerns over deteriorating profitability compounded, sending the stock down 10.83%. At the time, Oracle said capital expenditure (CapEx), which reflects data center spending, was $12 billion, up $3.5 billion from the prior quarter, far above the market expectation of $3.7 billion. With even the possibility of data center project delays being raised, concerns grew that visibility into converting investment into cash flow was lacking.
Noh Dong-gil, a researcher at Shinhan Investment & Securities, said, "Even though Oracle's and Broadcom's revenue and AI-related demand themselves were solid, they experienced a sharp share-price correction," adding, "The recent market pullback is less a negation of AI demand itself than a process of re-examining the timetable for when ROI becomes a reality." He said that in the past, growth and the scale of investment justified valuations, but now the market has moved to the stage of asking when investment starts to return to cash flow.