NEW YORK, May 7, 2026, 08:05 EDT
Mizuho Securities bumped up its price targets for a slate of AI-driven memory and storage names, boosting Micron Technology to $740 from $545 and moving Western Digital to $550 from $470. Wall Street’s appetite for data-center memory plays continues, with the firm maintaining its bullish stance on Micron, Western Digital, and SanDisk, the note shows.
Timing is key here. Investors have started viewing memory not just as another cyclical chip segment, but as a critical chokepoint in the AI ramp-up. AI inference—using models after training—relies on having speedy memory close to the processors. There’s also this agentic AI, software that can operate and plan with minimal human guidance, and it’s likely to push up demand for DRAM, NAND, and high-bandwidth memory (HBM).
Micron traded at $666.59 before the bell, marking a 4.2% bump from its previous finish. Western Digital saw shares climb roughly 3.8% to $483.15. SanDisk hovered near flat, quoted at $1,409.98, while Seagate advanced 2.0% to $786.42.
According to TipRanks, Mizuho’s Vijay Rakesh said “agentic AI” is fueling stronger memory demand. He bumped up Micron’s revenue outlook for fiscal 2026, 2027, and 2028 to $109 billion, $181 billion, and $179 billion. Rakesh’s new EPS forecasts land at $58.16, $104.74, and $94.40 for those years. TipRanks
HBM—the high-bandwidth memory that’s crucial for AI accelerators—marks the standout shift here, offering faster data movement than typical memory chips. Rakesh is now projecting Micron’s HBM revenue at $19.1 billion for fiscal 2026, $30.7 billion for 2027, and $35.7 billion in 2028. He expects total HBM market sales to climb at a 40% compound annual growth rate, crossing $100 billion by 2028.
Flash-memory stocks caught a boost, too. Rakesh bumped up his price target on SanDisk to $1,625 from $1,220, pointing to “demand outpacing supply” in NAND—the flash memory powering solid-state drives, smartphones, and data-center storage. TipRanks
Western Digital announced a capital-structure move this week, saying it will take in 1,865,801 of its own common shares in return for 653,203 SanDisk shares. The company expects to settle the exchange on May 7. After the trades wrap up, Western Digital will still hold 1,038,681 SanDisk shares.
Micron rolled out new proof points for its storage pitch. On May 5, the company announced it’s now shipping the 245-terabyte Micron 6600 ION data-center SSD—touted as the world’s highest-capacity solid-state drive on the market. The device targets everything from AI and cloud to enterprise and hyperscale use cases. “AI workloads are driving massive growth in shared data,” said Jeremy Werner, who leads Micron’s Core Data Center Business Unit. Micron Technology
IDC’s Jeff Janukowicz, commenting in Micron’s statement, noted “Rapid AI dataset growth is shifting storage economics,” and highlighted the industry’s shift to rack-level efficiency rather than just buying drives individually. According to Micron, the new 245TB SSD needs 82% fewer racks to match the raw storage capacity of hard disk drives, and it draws up to 30 watts at peak. Micron Technology
Still, after the run-up, the margin for error has narrowed. According to TipRanks, the Wall Street average price target for Micron sits at $581.89, now trailing the stock’s current price. Western Digital, on its own, flagged headwinds: tariffs, swings in demand, supply chain constraints, debt, and competitive moves—all factors it says could push results off course.
Mizuho’s thesis at the moment is straightforward: AI isn’t just about processors. It’s about memory and storage, too. The companies able to deliver limited-supply chips and drives stand to benefit, as data-center clients continue expanding through 2027.
