Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) shares have been on a tear in the morning trade session.
That’s because the company has announced a massive stock buyback plan and has also agreed to a new deal with Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) whereby it will make and ship new high-density chips which will be put into flash drives.
In the first bit of news, the chip maker has authorized the repurchase of US$10bn of common stock in a move that is supposed to return at least 50% of free cash flow to stockholders beginning in fiscal 2019.
Micron's shares are now up 6% at $58.96 in morning trade
READ: Micron Technology shares jump after boosting its 3Q fiscal earnings outlook
The second part of the story is about Micron’s collaboration with Intel to produce and ship the first 4bits/cell3D NAND flash memory chip.
Boasting the highest-density of a chip of its kind, the 64-layer 4bits/cell NAND chip allows for denser storage in a smaller space, paring down the cost of data storage.
"With introduction of 64-layer 4bits/cell NAND technology, we are achieving 33 percent higher array density compared to TLC, which enables us to produce the first commercially available 1 terabit die in the history of semiconductors," explained Scott DeBoer, executive vice president of technology development with Micron.
The company also revised its guidance for profit and revenue for its fiscal third quarter this week, a move investors cheered as well.
Micron now expects its revenue for the three months ending in May to fall between US$7.7bn to US$7.8bn, which is far better than its previous guidance of US$7.2bn to US$7.6bn.
Its earnings are also projected to be superior, shooting into the range of US$3.12 to US$3.16, compared to Micron’s previous guidance of US$2.76 to US$2.90 per share.