Micron (MU) reported Q2 revenue of $7.35 billion and eps of $2.82. The company beat on revenue by $70 million and beat on eps by $0.08. MU fell nearly 8% after earnings. I had the following takeaways on the quarter.

Top Line Growth Remains Gaudy

Last quarter Micron grew total revenue by 71% Y/Y. It followed up that performance  this quarter with revenue growth of 58% Y/Y and 8% sequentially. The tremendous leverage driven by higher sales are helping the bottom line. Gross margin improved to 58% from 37% in the year earlier period. This double-impact caused gross profit on a dollar basis to more than double.

Revenue from the Compute & Networking Business Unit ("CPBNU") was up over 90%, due to increases in average selling prices ("asp") for products sold into the client market, growth in the cloud driven by out-sized increases in DRAM content per server, and increased sales into the enterprise market. The Storage Business Unit's ("SBNU") sales of Trade NAND products was up 45% Y/Y but fell off 9% sequentially; asp for NAND component sales fell, partially offset by increases in SSD sales. Meanwhile, the Mobile Business Unit ("MBU") revenue was up 20% Y/Y driven by Micron's low-power DRAM product and sales of mobile DRAM into smartphones.

On a product basis DRAM revenue was up 14% Q/Q and 76% Y/Y. ASP and gigabits sold increased Y/Y in the low 40% range, and low 20% range, respectively; they also grew sequentially. Trade NAND revenue was up 28% Y/Y, but fell 3% sequentially. ASP decreased Y/Y in the high single digits while gigabits sold increased in the low 40% range. ASP also fell sequentially in the mid-teens range. According to management, the ASP decline was caused by a mix shift in the company's SBU NAND components. This could be a trend to watch going forward.

As I noted Thursday pre-earnings, Micron Is Sitting In The Catbird Seat. The importance of the cloud and gaming segments is creating explosive demand for memory and storage capacity. The secular shift from the previous PC-based market to the current dealer market is amplifying that demand. Micron is poised to exploit this secular shift. According to management, memory is also making possible applications like artificial intelligence and virtual reality:

This market now supports a healthy demand environment with several secular demand drivers that I have discussed earlier. More specifically, memory is making possible applications such as AI and VR, and enabling new cloud-based business models which deliver a fundamental value far in excess of a price per bit.

Management estimates DRAM bit growth in the 20% range in calendar year 2018. NAND bit growth could exceed 40%, driven by the transition to 64-layer 3D NAND. The NAND bit growth is predicated on an increase in supply to meet customer demand.

The Catbird Seat Could Heat Up

DRAM makes up over 70% of Micron's revenue. Its increased asp and bit growth across products has led to the company's out-sized top line growth. Can the DRAM market hold up? Which industry players will increase capacity that could potentially drive down asp? Micron may have partially answered that question on the earnings call.

Micron wants to diversity its portfolio of LPDRAM, MCP and managed storage solutions to meet customer demands. The company also wants to expand its 64-layer 3D TLC NAND capabilities and its portfolio of low-power solutions with 1X LPDRAM and 1X nanometer DRAM designs. Micron needs additional capacity to meet the demands needed by growth in the cloud, artificial intelligence, and increased memory needs in the mobile space. It announced plans to build a $7.5 billion clean room space:

Accordingly, we are executing plans to add clean room space in our NAND and DRAM SAS network. With the support of the Singapore Economic Development Board, we have finalized plans to build additional shelf space in Singapore, adjacent to our existing NAND Center of Excellence. The primary purpose for this new clean room space will be to transition our existing wafer capacity to future 3D NAND nodes ...

The first phase of this clean room is expected to be completed by the summer of 2019, with initial wafer output from the facility expected in the fourth quarter of calendar 2019. We are also building out incremental clean room space in our fab in Hiroshima, Japan, which will be available for production at the beginning of calendar year 2019. This clean room space will be used to continue our 1Y nanometer DRAM transition. For fiscal year 2018, we expect our capital expenditures to be in the upper end of our previously guided range of $7.5 billion, plus or minus 5%. Long term, we target capital expenditures as a percentage of revenue to be in the low 30% range.

Micron has cash on hand of nearly $8 billion. Free cash flow for the first half of the year was $4 billion, which equates to a run-rate of $8 billion. The company has ample cash and cash flow to fund its capital expenditure requirements. Its $4.2 billion capital expenditures through the first half of 2018 was exactly 30% of its total revenues. Maintaining this spend should not be a problem going forward.

In the short-term, capacity expansion could help meet customer demand requirements without being disruptive to DRAM and NAND prices. What happens if demand peaks or if Samsung (SSNLF) or Hynix (HXSCF) follows suit? NAND prices are already facing headwinds. If DRAM prices stagnate it could hurt the MU growth story.