On May 18, 2026, Wall Street significantly raised its price target for Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU), with both HSBC and Melius Research upgrading their targets to $1,100 on the same morning. Micron Technology closed at $681.54, down 5.95% from its opening price of $750.46. Zacks currently assigns a #1 Strong Buy rating, ranking in the top 24% of all tracked industries.
It is against this backdrop that the current debate over whether to buy is so prominent: two major rating upgrades, Kramer’s public endorsement, and the still-substantial gap between the stock’s trading price and analysts’ target prices.
After the Kramer signal, Micron's stock rating was upgraded, sparking debate on whether to buy or not.
Two companies, one number, one day
HSBC analyst Ricky Seo raised the target price for MU from $750 to $1,100, maintaining a “Buy” rating. He believes this upgrade is based on a four- to five-year cyclical upswing in the memory market, which is longer than the industry’s typical two- to three-year cycle. He specifically highlighted NVIDIA’s Rubin Ultra chip, whose required DRAM capacity is expected to be approximately 3.5 times that of current models. He forecasts that the DRAM and NAND markets will grow by 69% and 62%, respectively, by 2026. It is this clear outlook on market demand that leads him to view the current stock price decline as a buying opportunity, not a warning sign.
Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes also raised the stock's price target from $700 to $1,100 on the same day, maintaining a "Buy" rating. He also raised long-term expectations for all "bottleneck stocks" under Melius's "Buy" ratings, including SanDisk, AMD, Intel, and Marvell. Reitzes on the overall architecture, he has the following views:
In his late April launch document, he described structural issues in sharper terms:
Jim Cramer calls it buying, not panicking.
CNBC's Jim Cramer also commented on the sell-off, saying the day's decline presented a buying opportunity. He told viewers not to panic over Micron Technology and to start building positions gradually. When asked whether to buy Micron Technology stock, Cramer gave an unequivocal answer, calling Micron one of his top favorite stocks.
He noted that the gross margin is moving toward the company’s target range of 50.5% to 52.5%, up from a level slightly below 46%, and stated that the broad sell-off in the semiconductor industry reflects sector rotation rather than any deterioration in fundamentals. He recommended building positions gradually rather than attempting to time the bottom. The stock has already risen approximately 170% from its April low, so Kramer specifically cautioned investors against chasing the rally.
"Buy Now" case, and other potential issues
Micron is currently one of only three companies worldwide capable of mass-producing high-bandwidth memory, the other two being Samsung and SK Hynix. HBM supply is essentially sold out through the end of the year. Citigroup has also raised its price target from $425 to $840 while maintaining a “Buy” rating. Therefore, the case for buying Micron stock right now is straightforward: limited supply, surging demand driven by artificial intelligence, and three separate institutions telling investors that the current price undervalues Micron’s potential trajectory over the next one to two years.
However, Goldman Sachs’ target price is much more conservative, at around $400, and many skeptics have consistently pointed out that the memory market is cyclical. Once manufacturers expand capacity around 2028, the current supply constraints that support the high premium could ease rapidly. The true test of this upgrade argument will come on June 24, 2026, when Micron reports earnings; management is expected to update guidance on HBM supply and AI revenue. This earnings report will give investors a clearer view of whether the bulls or bears are right.