Micron Swings to a Loss

Updated from 4:31 p.m. EDT

MicronMU swung to a loss in its fiscal second quarter, as the company endured plummeting prices of memory chips and weak demand from cell phone makers.

The Boise, Idaho chipmaker said Wednesday it lost $52 million, or 7 cents a share, for the three months ended March 1. A year earlier, the company earned $115 million, or 15 cents a share.

The loss was greater than analyst expectations, which had called for Micron to lose one penny a share in the quarter.

Sales totaled $1.43 billion, up 16.5% from the same time a year ago. Analysts were expecting sales of $1.46 billion a year earlier.

"Notwithstanding current, challenging market conditions, the size of the markets for our semiconductor products continues to grow at an impressive rate," said CEO Steve Appleton in a statement.

Shares of Micron were up 45 cents, or 3.7%, to $12.52 in after-hours trading; the stock fell 1.3% in very heavy trading during the regular session.

The company blamed crashing prices of NAND flash memory chips for much of the red ink. According to Micron, prices for flash memory chips fell 30% in the second quarter.

While prices of DRAM memory chips also fell during the second quarter, Micron said it lowered its DRAM production costs by a similar amount, resulting in "relatively stable gross margins" for DRAM products.