Seagate and Western Digital Dive 6%, SK Hynix and Micron Slide 5% as Memory Stocks Cool
Seagate and Western Digital Dive 6%, SK Hynix and Micron Slide 5% as Memory Stocks Cool
David MoadelMon, August 3, 2026 at 2:00 PM UTC
0
luchschenF / Shutterstock.comQuick Read -
MU and SNDK declined Monday yet remain up sharply year-to-date as Morgan Stanley labels the drop a technical leverage washout.
UBS initiated SKHY at Buy with a $204 target while DRAM memory ETF valuations span from Micron's cheaper trailing P/E ratio to Seagate's comparatively elevated multiple.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won made his first-ever personal SK Hynix share purchase just as the KOSPI slid 5% and Samsung dropped 8% overnight.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Micron Technology didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
Shares of memory and storage names are cooling in early Monday trading. Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) stock is down 5% to $782, SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) shares are off 1.5% to $1,197, Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) shares are down 6% to $511, and Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) shares are lower by 6% to $801. SK Hynix ADR shares are down 5% to $136, while Roundhill Memory ETF (CBOE:DRAM) shares are down 3% to $48.81.
Even after today's pullback, much of the group remains sharply higher year to date (YTD). Micron stock is up 188% YTD and SanDisk shares are up 412% YTD, so today's Monday move sits inside one of the year's most powerful sector rallies.
The decline tracks a sharp reversal in Korean chipmakers overnight, with the KOSPI index falling 5% Monday. Samsung Electronics slid 8% and SK Hynix's Korean-listed shares dropped 4%, giving back part of Friday's record 18% gain on lingering concerns about elevated valuations across the memory complex.
U.S. memory names actually traded higher in overnight action Sunday on headlines around President Trump signaling renewed talks with Iran, only to reverse into Monday morning weakness that mirrors the Korean move. The path from Seoul to Boise is short when leveraged positioning unwinds across the same names.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Micron Technology didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
Technical Selloff After a Torrid Run
Morgan Stanley called the recent selloff "largely technical," describing what the firm framed as a "leverage washout" as leveraged ETFs, hedge fund positions, and retail margin unwind together. The commentary reads as a positioning cleanup story tied to the size of recent gains.
Morgan Stanley also upgraded Korean stocks to Overweight from Equal-weight, forecasting the KOSPI could rise 36% from Friday's close, citing valuation support at Samsung and SK Hynix. Taking a positive view on the same names that led the decline is a meaningful signal.
UBS initiated coverage of SK Hynix's U.S.-listed ADR at Buy with a $204 price target, calling the pullback an attractive entry point. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won also made his first-ever personal purchase of SK Hynix shares, a bullish insider signal that landed just as the tape rolled over.
The fundamentals behind the multi-year AI memory cycle appear intact for now, with HBM, DDR5, NAND, and mass-capacity HDD demand still tied to hyperscaler capex plans. Monday's move looks like a cool-down in positioning after enormous gains rather than a change in the underlying setup.
Advertisement
Valuations Vary Widely Across the Group
The group sells off together on Monday, yet trailing valuations diverge significantly across these names. Micron stock trades at a trailing 12-month P/E ratio of 18.59x and SK Hynix shares at 19.64x, the cheapest pair of the group, while Seagate stock sits at the top of the range at 61.73x and SanDisk shares carry a 41.49x multiple.
Western Digital shares trade at 32.57x, and the Roundhill Memory ETF carries a holdings-weighted 22.68x multiple. That spread is worth noting. The memory theme moves as one story on days like today, but pricing across DRAM, NAND, and HDD names is far from uniform, and the market appears to reward different points in the storage stack differently.
Micron's lower multiple looks less demanding after the run, while Seagate's higher one reflects investor enthusiasm for mass-capacity HDDs tied to AI data-center storage. This framing is simply an observation, but the valuation dispersion is one of the more interesting features of this sector today.
The Roundhill ETF is a single-theme fund concentrated in the largest memory producers. The ETF's top holdings include Samsung Electronics at 24.99%, SK Hynix Inc at 24.22%, and Micron Technology at 23.83%. The fund isn't leveraged, but the concentration and thin trading history mean the shares can move sharply in both directions.
What to Watch Now
Market watchers can watch for whether early declines hold or fade into midday, and whether memory ETF shares stabilize as a barometer for broader sector sentiment. Any follow-through in Korean chipmakers overnight can set the tone for Tuesday's U.S. session.
Investors may also want to keep an eye on Micron stock and SK Hynix shares given Morgan Stanley's technical framing and UBS's fresh Buy call on the ADR. Analyst notes trimming targets after the huge run, if any surface, could shape the next leg of the trade.
A cautious approach fits given the size of the year-to-date gains across the memory complex. Investors should consider keeping their position sizes modest if adding on this weakness, especially in the higher-multiple names where the valuation cushion is thinnest. Monitoring the DRAM memory ETF into the close can provide a quick read on whether the group finds support today.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Micron Technology didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
Contact editorial@247wallst.com for any questions or corrections.
Source: “AOL Money”
