Micron Makes the $1 Trillion Club a Little More Crowded

In this episode of Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing, Motley Fool contributors Travis Hoium, Lou Whiteman, and Rachel Warren discuss:

• Micron’s trip to $1 trillion.
• Eli Lilly’s winning streak.
• Zscaler earnings.

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A full transcript is below.

This podcast was recorded on May 27, 2026.

Travis Hoium: We have a new member of the $1 trillion club. Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing starts now. Welcome to Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing. I'm Travis Hoium, joined today by Lou Whiteman and Rachel Warren. Guys, we have a new member of the trillion-dollar club. I believe there's now 14 companies that are worth over $1 trillion. This used to be a really big number, and now it seems like we get a new company every week. But, Lou, the company that we're talking about is Micron. Passed $1 trillion. I thought it was interesting. I look back at their financials five quarters ago; they were free cash flow negative. Now they are the hottest stock on the market. This is a cyclical industry. Typically, a cyclical industry, but this is now also one of the most valuable companies in the world. Is this time around different for Micron?

Lou Whiteman: Maybe. But let's pause for a second and look at what they've done. This was a $350 billion company on Jan. 1. Guys, it's still May. They've had a heck of a career in a couple of months. Gained 19% yesterday, basically on an analyst price target move. These are not normal times. That said, there is a there there. These AI models need memory. Micron has done a decent job shifting its business just away from this brutal commodity cycle and towards a higher-value product. They are special among memory. The note in question, the note that triggered this move over $1 trillion. That analyst sees long-term contracts in plays through 2029. If that's correct, and I do think they're directionally correct anyway, this is not a fluke. This is not a one-time thing. This is the market responding to real demand, and with AI, just the numbers are all huge, but the demand is huge.

Travis Hoium: Rachel, it does seem like this time is a little bit different. They are in a little bit higher value segment of the market, but there's also more players coming into the market. At the end of the day, memory is the thing where supply and demand ultimately matters, but free cash flow does, too, and it seems like they're going to have a really good year.

Rachel Warren: Absolutely. It's interesting to take a step back because historically, memory was this unglamorous brutal corner of tech. Companies like Micron, they made standard dram for PCs and smartphones, demand would dip, inventory piles up, prices crash. It was a really pure commodity cycle. There has been a lot that's changed over the last few years, and a lot of that goes back to high-bandwidth memory. Modern AI accelerators, you think of Nvidia's Black LOD chips, for example, they can't function without massive amounts of premium ultra-fast memory stacked directly next to the processor. Micron has pivoted from selling what was essentially in comparison, a cheap commodity to selling this very high margin, highly customized strategic asset. We're really seeing the physical reality of chip manufacturing is creating a massive bottleneck, as well and that actually benefits Micron. They’ve sold out their entire high-bandwidth memory chip supply for all of 2026 under fixed long-term contracts. The CEO is saying that they can only fulfill about 50% to 67% of current customer demand, and because building these semiconductor fabs takes years, new supply from their domestic expansions won't even hit the market until 2028. That is creating tremendous tailwinds for the business. I think we're seeing a lot of that enthusiasm bear out, certainly in that analyst note and of course, in the broader markets response.

Travis Hoium: Lou, I want to just touch on their valuation, too. This is one of those companies that you look at the stock in a very low price-to-earnings multiple, especially on a forward basis. It has been even in the low single digits, not just single digits, but four or five as recently as a few weeks ago. I think we're a little bit over that now. But historically, we're trying to give a little bit of historical context here. When these cyclical companies get to this point where everyone can see that they're incredibly cheap, that's also when things are really dangerous for investors, because the E part of the price-to-earnings multiple is typically starting to peak. What should we be looking for in these commodity markets? I know HBM isn't a commodity market today, but it's potentially commoditizing over the future. There are things that customers can do to use less HBM, to be less reliant on companies like Micron. The market will react at some point. What should we be looking for as investors?

Lou Whiteman: I feel like we go back to a conversation we had 24 hours ago about how something has to give here. Not everything can keep going straight up. Where does it give? I do think, when you're looking at this market right now, it's like, how do customers react? It may be that they can't for now. But that for now does a lot of work in that sentence. This whole thing, I could say with great confidence that it won't go on forever. What we're looking for is when will that turn? All we really know right now is not now. There is a sustainable there there through this year. You don't get rich calling a bubble. Nobody got rich declaring it a bubble. They got rich acting on it, and a lot of people didn't get rich because they acted at the wrong moment. Right now, I think this sustains until it doesn't, to go to say the obvious. Any sign of a pivot one way or the other, or more capacity coming online, I still think it's going to be the CFOs that some of the hyperscalars said, we're just going to tap our brakes ever so slightly. But I think we need to see a flinch. Until we do, the standoff just continues.

Travis Hoium: The long-term contracts sound really great. I followed the solar industry for a very long time. Those long-term contracts that was silicon and a little bit different silicon, but the same concept where you need to get this supply. You got to lock it up long term. That became really problematic for actually both sides. The companies that were signing those long-term deals signed them at really high prices that ultimately led to some of their downfall. If their customers are no longer buying those products, then that leads to problems for the manufacturers as well. I think you're right, Lou that this is not going to be the same forever for at least the foreseeable future. For the next few quarters, it seems like memory is going to be a business that's going gangbusters. We'll see when it turns. When we come back, we're going to turn our attention to the pharmaceutical space and what's going on with Eli Lilly. You're listening to Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing.

Welcome back to Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing. We got some really potentially big news from Eli Lilly, who seems to be absolutely on fire right now. They introduced some trial results, some early trial results that could impact the future of heart disease. Rachel, this is a little bit over my head. Explain this trial and exactly what they're doing to me. Like I'm my 9-year-old son.

Rachel Warren: Sounds good. Eli Lilly, they just released Phase 1B trial data. We're in the early stages of testing at this point, on a gene-editing therapy, which is unnamed right now. It's just called VERVE-102. They acquired this asset last year from a company called Verve Therapeutics. They purchased Verve Therapeutics for about $1 billion. This is a candidate that the FDA has already fast-tracked, so that could mean that we see it developed and hit the market at a much faster pace. Phase 2 trials are scheduled to begin by the end of this year. But why is this candidate so notable? In this early trial, a Phase 1B trial, you had a single intravenous infusion that slashed LDL cholesterol. Remember, that's the bad cholesterol, slashed it by up to 62%. There was a durable reduction in bad cholesterol, lasting up to 18 months and counting in trial participants. The drug uses a very precise form of CRISPR technology called vivo-based editing. It basically uses these tiny nanoparticles that travel right into the patient's liver cells, and once there, acts like a genetic eraser, actually changes a single DNA letter to permanently turn off a gene that otherwise holds the liver back, and that way, the liver can clear the bad cholesterol from the blood naturally.

Why is this so important? Historically, managing heart disease, it means taking a statin every single day for the rest of your life. Data from this early trial showed that about half of all patients stop taking their daily cholesterol meds. This therapy is really completely shifting the medicine that could be available for these patients from continuous chronic management to a permanent one-time preventative measure. It's still very, very early days. We will have to follow this closely, but it is really exciting news.

Travis Hoium: I saw one comment say that this could eliminate heart disease. That's probably going to the extreme extent. But it seems like the doctors who are looking at this are just incredibly impressed with the results. The other thing, and you mentioned it, but I want to highlight it. This was one infusion. This was not taking a pill every day. This is not doing an injection every day. This is a one-time infusion that lasts at least a year, 18 months. We're still early in what this would actually look like in commercial patients. But this is potentially the thing that could have a dramatic impact on people's lives and longevity with relatively minimal invasiveness.

Rachel Warren: Absolutely. The other thing that I think is important to note is Eli Lilly has been on an acquisitive streak. One other note to what I was saying, they just announced that they're acquiring three new companies. They are flush with cash from the GLP-1 successes that they have enjoyed. Of course, they have a broad portfolio outside of that. But they're spending up to $4 billion on three clinical-stage vaccine developers. One is a company called Curevo that's developing a next-generation vaccine for shingles. Another company is really designed to buy out their vaccine against the Epstein-Barr Virus. There's no approved vaccine for this virus, causes mononucleosis. It's been linked to chronic conditions like multiple sclerosis. Third, they're acquiring a company called LimmaTech Biologics. It's a Swiss firm, and they focus on developing vaccines against severe bacterial pathogens. The company is on a run-up right now, but if you look at what they're doing with their business, with the profitability and cash they have on hand, it's really strategic use of their capital.

Travis Hoium: Lou, this seems like the thing where they're on a roll, and they're just building a moat around their business. We didn't even talk about Rtotrutide, which is potentially coming in the next year or so. I think they're in Phase 3. That is a GLP-3 is what they're calling it, phenomenal results for that. It seems like everything is going incredibly well for Eli Lilly right now.

Lou Whiteman: I don't know if they're building a moat because I don't know what that would look like, but they are building optionality, and that's what's really important. Look, VERVE-102, I hope for the best here. I've been on their statin since I was in my '20s. I get this. It's not going to cure heart disease. The heart breaks in a lot of different ways, but it could really help in one of the leading causes of death. That's what matters. Also, though, this was a study of 35 patients over 18 months. As Rachel said, we have a long ways to go. We'll see. The thing is, and this is what Rachel was focused on, and it's absolutely right. There's this. There's all of these acquisitions. Verve was just an acquisition a year ago. Lilly has just this ton of cash because of GLPs, and they are making sure they are buying options on the future to a time when patents go off or when GLPs aren't the next big thing. They are making a lot of strategic bets, smart bets. They're just not throwing money at the wall, but they are buying promising technologies. Truthfully, if one of these four turns into a blockbuster, they will have done better than most. It's almost hard to invest on any one of these things. But for a pharmaceutical company with all of the risks, with all of the hurdles that come with this business, with all the patent expirations, what you want is for them to take in times when they have the cash to expand their portfolio and find good uses of that cash, and Lily gets really high marks on that.

Travis Hoium: We talk about building portfolios at the Motley Fool, diversifying your risk. That's exactly what Eli Lilly is doing. It seems like things are going incredibly well on multiple fronts. We'll see if that continues for investors. When we come back, we're going to talk about Zscaler's results and the market's reaction. You're listening to the Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing.

Welcome back to Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing. Zscaler reported earnings after the market closed yesterday, and Rachel, the stock is down 30% as we're recording. The numbers didn't look terrible, but investors are looking at guidance here, and that's what they didn't like. What did you see in the quarter?

Rachel Warren: Yeah, they beat their quarterly expectations on both the top and bottom line. They delivered adjusted earnings per share of $850.5 million in revenue. That top line figure, that's 25% growth year-over-year. Not bad, to be sure. They actually are forecasting Q4 revenue 875-878 million. That would be 22% growth year-over-year. Now, the top end of that range missed Wall Street's expectations just slightly. Again, the top end of that guidance, 878 million. Wall Street was looking for 879 million. I think what the market did not like was the fact that Zscaler cut its full-year free cash flow margin guidance from about 26.8% down to 23%. This is because they're spending heavily on AI capex. Rising data center and hardware costs to power their new AI tools. They also had two key sales executives that departed right at the end of the quarter. The core business is still really healthy. They're seeing a lot of generous growth from AI bookings, their data security annual recurring revenue topped 500 million. We're seeing a lot of software phobia in the market right now, and I think punishing really any company that displays a temporary speed bump. I think that's what we're witnessing here. I'm not a buyer of this stock, but this was not a bad quarter. This is not a company that's flailing by any means. Interesting to see how the market's responding.

Travis Hoium: Lou talked about the increase in prices or margins for some of the memory companies earlier. The downstream impact is you're hitting things like the cash flow for hyperscalers, for Zscaler. Is this just the ebbs and flows of the market? I also wanted to note that the stocks skyrocketed over the past month or so. This is just undoing that return from the SaaSpocalypse. It just seems like nobody really knows what to think about these companies long term.

Lou Whiteman: That's the bottom line. Because look, this is an overreaction today, period. The results were not bad enough to justify 30% down. However, I'm not sure there was any rational move by this stock in the last few years. Like you say, we can't now criticize the market for not being rational today when we've just been in a weird market for a while. I don't know if Zscaler will quadruple from here or go to zero, but I do know that these results aren't worth 30% down. Rachel mentioned it, data security growth is solid. There was a lot of weird sales things. Here's the bottom line for me. I don't know what AI is going to do to software, but I will be very, very surprised if the first thing CEOs look to replace is cybersecurity. I feel almost certain that it's going to be something less mission-critical or at least less dangerous to replace.

I don't think this idea that Zscaler is just going to go away because we can do this with AI tomorrow is going to happen. The question for me, and the question I can't answer — I talked to some cybersecurity people — I don't think they know the answer yet is. Will AI fundamentally change the threat in a way that makes the incumbents vulnerable to newcomers? Will Zscaler get replaced by an AI-focused Zscaler? It seems far-fetched to me, but I do think that's the bigger risk here. I think caution here and caution throughout software makes sense, but I don't think down 30% because they're investing in the business, and they might have just had a choppy sales cycle. I can't tell you that makes sense.

Travis Hoium: It's interesting to look at some of these valuations, too. You talked about the market being irrational and the enterprise value. The stock is down significantly. Today, it's also down from a high of over $300 at the end of 2025. But still, it's trading for six times sales and 30 times forward earnings estimates. This is, despite the fact that the stock is down as much as it is, still not necessarily a cheap stock. Lots of things for investors to weigh, but I think you're right. Cybersecurity has a bright future, just a matter of who's going to be the winners there.

As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about and The Motley Fool, and they have former recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows The Motley Fool's editorial standards, it is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our show notes. For Lou Whiteman, Rachel Warren, and Austin Morgan behind the glass, I'm Travis Hoium. Thanks for listening. We'll see you here tomorrow.

Lou Whiteman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Rachel Warren has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Travis Hoium has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Eli Lilly, Micron Technology, Nvidia, and Zscaler. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.