The memory chipmaker has spent under $8 billion on buybacks since 2019. Its board just approved over four times that.
The memory chipmaker has spent under $8 billion on buybacks since 2019.
Its board just approved over four times that.
Micron Technology (MU -3.62%) hasn't been a heavy buyer of its own stock. From fiscal 2019, when the current repurchase program made its first purchases, through fiscal 2026, the memory chipmaker spent $7.84 billion on buybacks. It never spent over $2.66 billion in any one year.
But Micron's annual report, filed Oct. 9, says the board lifted the buyback authorization to $35.16 billion on Oct. 8. The new cap is over four times what the company spent in those eight fiscal years combined.
I expect Micron will top that eight-year total in the next 12 months. But the buyback might do less for the share count than a number this big suggests.
The board's number comes almost entirely from a single quarter. The report says the total begins with the $2.16 billion left under Micron's earlier $10 billion authorization. Then it adds 100% of the last quarter's non-GAAP (adjusted) free cash flow after dividends, or around $33 billion.
Showing how unusual the quarter was, Micron's adjusted free cash flow (the cash left after capital spending) reached $33.2 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 (the period ended Sept. 3, 2026). And it's been climbing fast, from $803 million a year earlier and $18.3 billion in fiscal Q3. For all of fiscal 2026, free cash flow totaled $62.3 billion -- up from $3.7 billion in fiscal 2025. In other words, eight years of buybacks now equal around 24% of the free cash flow Micron generated during one quarter.
Management expects even more. Micron's CFO, Mark Murphy, told analysts on the Sept. 30 earnings call that free cash flow this quarter should be significantly higher than in fiscal Q4.
He also said that the company has "the ability and the intent to increase our capital return."
The board raised the authorization eight days later.
Averytin News Financial update.