Micron Technology announced record sales of US$30.8 billion for the entire fiscal 2022, which ended September 1, 2022. However, Q4 sales declined 23% quarter-on-quarter and 21% year-on-year to US$6.6 billion, due to a weakened near-term supply-demand environment.
For the outlook guidance, Micron forecast its FY23 Q1 revenues at $4.25 billion ± $250 million, implying a steep decline of 31.8%~39.3% quarter-on-quarter, and 45% year-on-year. Micron also said it does not rule out the possibility of seeing a net loss in the next quarter.
"We are taking decisive steps to reduce our supply growth including a nearly 50% wafer fab equipment capex cut versus last year, and we expect to emerge from this downcycle well positioned to capitalize on the long-term demand for memory and storage," said Micron Technology President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra in the press release.
He said significant reductions were made to capex and now expect fiscal 2023 capex to be around $8 billion, down more than 30% year over year. "Capex would be lower if it were not for more than doubling our construction capex year over year to support the supply growth required to meet demand for the second half of this decade as well as investment for EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography systems to support 1-gamma node development."
Given the elevated supplier inventories entering calendar 2023, Micron expect industry profitability to remain challenging in 2023.
Micron forecasts strong revenue growth in the second half of FY23 following a weak first half of FY23, as bit demand rebounds, following substantial improvement in customer inventories.
Projections for long-term demand remain strong across multiple end markets. Micron expects long-term DRAM bit growth to be in the mid-teens percentage, slightly lower than its prior expectation of mid-to-high teens due to a moderation in expectation of long-term PC unit sales. It is also expecting the NAND market, which benefits from elasticity, to grow around 28% over the long term.
"We expect calendar 2023 industry DRAM supply to grow well below demand growth. We are modeling a mid-single-digit percentage growth in DRAM industry supply in 2023, which would represent the lowest-ever industry supply growth. NAND supply growth in calendar 2023 is also expected to fall below demand growth," said Mehrotra.
Micron reported a FYQ4 GAAP net income of $1.49 billion, or $1.35 per diluted share. For the entire FY22, the gross margin was 46%, up from 40% a year ago. The operating margin was 33%, an increase of 5 percentage points from FY21. Net income was US$9.48 billion, up 35.8% from the previous year.
In terms of products, Fiscal Q4 DRAM revenue was $4.8 billion, representing 72% of total revenue. DRAM revenue declined 23% sequentially and was down 21% year over year. Sequentially, bit shipments decreased by roughly 10% while average selling prices (ASPs) declined in the low-teens percentage range. For the fiscal year, DRAM revenue increased 12% year over year to $22.4 billion, representing 73% of total fiscal year revenue.
NAND Fiscal Q4 revenue was $1.7 billion, representing 25% of Micron's total revenue. NAND revenue declined 26% sequentially and was down 14% year over year. Sequential bit shipments declined in the low-20s percentage range, and ASPs declined in the mid-to-high single-digit percentage range. For the fiscal year, NAND revenue increased 11% year over year to a record $7.8 billion, representing 25% of total fiscal year revenue.
