Micron Technology stock dips after 3Q results

NEW YORK - Shares of memory-chip maker Micron Technology Inc. sank Friday after it said its loss widened in its latest quarter.

The Boise, Idaho, company's stock fell 19 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $5.11 in midday trading.

Late Thursday, Micron posted a loss of $290 million, or 36 cents per share, in the fiscal third quarter ended June 4. That compared with a loss of $236 million, or 30 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue fell 26 percent to $1.1 billion from $1.5 billion, partly due to lower production costs for flash memory, widely used in phones, cameras and music players. Micron passes on such cost reductions to its partner Intel Corp.

Analysts, on average, were expecting a loss of 43 cents per share on sales of $1.18 billion, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

Lazard Capital analyst Daniel Amir said Micron's gross margin was surprisingly strong, making him trim his loss estimates for the current and next fiscal year. The most important factor for Micron's stock price continues to be the price of computer memory chips, which has been relatively stable, he wrote in a morning research note.

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