Shares of Micron Technology Inc. (MU, Financial) jumped by nearly 6.5% on the back of financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2018, ended Nov. 30. The company posted an adjusted EPS of $2.45 on revenue of $6.8 billion, which represented a 71.3% increase from the figure reported a year earlier. Moreover, Micron managed to beat EPS expectations by 25 cents, and revenue also beat consensus estimates by $410.0 million.
Sanjay Mehrotra, Micron's president and CEO, said that the results were explained by double-digit sequential revenue growth in mobile, server and SSD applications, while the gross margins have expanded and the profitability improved.
"We are making solid progress on our strategic priorities to drive cost competitiveness, deploy high value solutions and strengthen our balance sheet," he said. "We believe these actions will position Micron to benefit from the broad demand trends ahead of us."
BlackBerry Ltd. (BB, Financial) traded higher on Wednesday after reporting third quarter results. It recorded EPS of three cents on revenue of $235 million. The company managed to beat expectations in EPS by three cents and in revenue by $19.58 million. The revenue decline was 21.9% year over year. About two-thirds of third quarter software and services revenue (excluding IP licensing and professional services) was recurring.
"We achieved records in software and services revenue and total company gross margin; breaking the records we set last quarter," John Chen, executive chairman and CEO, said. "We expanded our position in key verticals and geographies, with many new partners and highly competitive customer wins."
Guidance was maintained. The company expects total non-GAAP revenue in the range of $920 million to $950 million and total non-GAAP software and services revenue growth in the range of 10% to 15%.
Shares of FedEx Corporation (FDX, Financial) traded higher after reporting earnings of $3.18 per diluted share for the second quarter ended Nov. 30, compared to earnings of $2.77 per diluted share a year ago. Revenue growth was 9.2% year over year to $16.3 billion. FedEx managed to beat EPS by 29 cents and also beat in revenue by $620 million.
Alan B. Graf, Jr., FedEx Corp. executive vice president and CFO, is increasing fiscal 2018 projections, driven by revenue quality, solid demand trends and the success of restoring business. He also affirmed the improvement of operating income at the FedEx Express segment by $1.2 to $1.5 billion in fiscal 2020 versus fiscal 2017.
Disclosure: The author holds no position in any stocks mentioned.
