Just because a company reports strong earnings doesn’t mean its stock is going to go up. Let’s look at three artificial intelligence (AI) stocks that investors dumped that they’ll regret selling.
Micron
Micron Technology (MU 3.34%) reported what was arguably the best earnings report of any major AI company, yet it wasn’t enough to keep its stock from trading lower. Its fiscal second-quarter revenue surged nearly threefold to $23.9 billion, while its gross margins climbed from 36.8% a year ago to 74.4%. And its fiscal third-quarter guidance for revenue between $32.75 billion and $34.25 billion crushed analyst expectations for $24.3 billion.
The biggest reason for the sell-off appears to be a combination of profit taking and the market anticipating an end to the current super cycle in dynamic random access memory (DRAM) that is lifting prices.
However, this ignores one of the most important things to come out of Micron’s earnings report: The company was able to lock in its first-ever five-year strategic customer commitment for high bandwidth memory (HBM). This is a big shift away from its customary one-year agreements, and helps add increased visibility while reducing the cyclical nature of its business.
Today’s Change
(-3.34%) $-13.22
Current Price
$382.31
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$446B
Day’s Range
$371.56 – $388.92
52wk Range
$61.54 – $471.34
Volume
2.2M
Avg Vol
37M
Gross Margin
58.54%
Dividend Yield
0.12%
With HBM demand directly tied to the market for graphics processing units (GPU) and AI chips, there is no reason for Micron’s stock to trade at a forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) below 4.5 based on fiscal 2027 analyst estimates. Its business looks set to become less cyclical, making it a stock investors will regret selling off after earnings.
Amazon
Shares of Amazon (AMZN +2.02%) sold off after earnings, despite the company seeing its growth in cloud computing revenue accelerate and continued strong operating leverage in its e-commerce operations. The biggest focus around the business is Amazon Web Services (AWS), which saw its revenue climb 24% in the fourth quarter, its fastest rate in more than three years.
Today’s Change
(2.02%) $4.19
Current Price
$211.43
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$2.2T
Day’s Range
$209.90 – $213.04
52wk Range
$161.38 – $258.60
Volume
1.8M
Avg Vol
49M
Gross Margin
50.29%
However, investors seemed more concerned about the $200 billion in capital expenditures the company plans this year, largely focused on increasing AI data center capacity to help drive cloud growth. That should not be a worry, though, as Amazon has a long history of spending big to win big, and has demonstrated strong returns on its investments over the years.
Partnerships with Anthropic and OpenAI help provide a clear path for continued strong cloud growth. At the same time, AI and robotics are driving increased efficiency in its e-commerce operations, leading to strong operating leverage in this business.
Trading at a forward P/E of 27.5, the stock is at one of its lowest historical valuations, and investors will likely regret selling off the shares after earnings.
Image source: Getty Images.
Microsoft
Microsoft (MSFT 0.46%) is another tech giant that sold off following its earnings, despite posting strong results. The company saw its fiscal second-quarter revenue climb 17%, led by a 39% surge in sales from its Azure cloud computing unit. It was the tenth consecutive quarter that Azure revenue has risen by 30% or more.
And it’s well-positioned to continue to see strong revenue growth. The company has a huge $625 billion in commercial remaining performance obligations (RPOs), helped by a huge commitment from OpenAI, and to a lesser extent from Anthropic.
Today’s Change
(-0.46%) $-1.70
Current Price
$371.04
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$2.8T
Day’s Range
$369.63 – $377.06
52wk Range
$344.79 – $555.45
Volume
31M
Avg Vol
35M
Gross Margin
68.59%
Dividend Yield
0.93%
Last fall, Microsoft reworked its investment with OpenAI, where it now has a 32.5% stake in the company, intellectual property rights for both its models and products through 2032, and $250 billion in additional incremental cloud computing commitments. At the same time, its software businesses are also performing well, helped by the continued adoption of its AI assistant copilots.
Trading at a forward P/E of 20.5 based on a fiscal 2027 analyst consensus, the stock is just too cheap for a premier enterprise software company that is also seeing huge growth in cloud computing revenue.