Featured Tickers: AMKR, MU, PLAB
This week, we use AAII’s A+ Investor Stock Grades to provide insight into three semiconductor stocks. With increased investment in semiconductor manufacturing worldwide, should you consider the three stocks of Amkor Technology Inc. (AMKR), Micron Technology Inc. (MU) and Photronics Inc. (PLAB)?
Semiconductor Stocks Recent News
The semiconductors industry is in a historic year, driven almost entirely by the buildout of artificial intelligence (AI). As the Semiconductor Industry Association explains in its 2026 State of the U.S. Semiconductor Industry report, global semiconductor chip sales hit a record $795.6 billion in 2025, far above initial forecasts, and are projected to reach $1.5 trillion in 2026. If this projection is correct, it will be the first time the industry has topped $1 trillion. Logic chips led all categories at $299.5 billion, up 38.8% year over year, while memory followed at $230.0 billion, up 39.0% year over year. U.S.-headquartered companies captured $425 billion of those sales, a 53.4% global share and the highest market share since 1984. The AI demand behind this surge is staggering: A single AI server rack in a data center contains over 4,500 packaged chips that make up roughly 95% of its content value, and annual revenue for chips deployed in AI data centers could surpass $1.2 trillion by 2028, a nearly tenfold increase over four years.
As the report points out, the industry is responding with record investment, though talent and supply chain pressures remain. More than $770 billion in investments has been announced across 160 projects in 30 states since 2020, and U.S. chip companies spent $76.8 billion on research and development (R&D) in 2025, up 10.3% year over year. Given these dynamics for the in-demand semiconductor industry, should you invest in Amkor Technology, Micron Technology and Photronics?
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Grading Semiconductor Stocks With AAII’s A+ Stock Grades
When analyzing a company, it is helpful to have an objective framework that allows you to compare companies in the same way. This is why AAII created the A+ Stock Grades, which evaluate companies across five factors that research and real-world investment results indicate to identify market-beating stocks in the long run: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions (and surprises) and quality.
Using AAII’s A+ Stock Grades, the following table summarizes the attractiveness of three semiconductor stocks—Amkor Technology, Micron Technology and Photronics—based on their fundamentals.
AAII’s A+ Stock Grade Summary for Three Semiconductor Stocks
What the A+ Stock Grades Reveal
Amkor Technology Inc. (AMKR) is a global semiconductor packaging and test services company operating in the U.S., Asia and Europe. It offers outsourced semiconductor assembly and test services for integrated circuit manufacturers and electronics companies worldwide. The company serves customers across a broad range of end markets, including communications, computing, automotive, industrial and consumer electronics. Amkor Technology provides advanced packaging and test solutions that enable chipmakers to bring finished semiconductors to the market without investing in their own back-end manufacturing infrastructure. It also develops next-generation packaging technologies to support the growing demands of AI, 5G and electric vehicle (EV) applications. The company was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona.
Amkor Technology has a Value Grade of B, based on its Value Score of 68, which is good value. The Value Grade is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales (P/S) ratio, price-earnings (P/E) ratio, price-to-book-value (P/B) ratio, price-to-free-cash-flow (P/FCF) ratio, shareholder yield and the ratio of enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). For these value metrics, a lower rank is more attractive. The company has an enterprise-value-to-EBITDA ratio of 5.4, ranking in the 12th percentile among all U.S.-listed stocks. It also has a shareholder yield of 0.5%, ranking in the 39th percentile.
The company has a Growth Grade of B, which is strong. The components of the Growth Composite Score consider a company’s success in growing sales on a year-over-year and long-term annualized basis and its ability to consistently generate positive cash from its core operations. Amkor Technology has a five-year annualized sales growth rate of 5.8% and has generated positive annual cash from operations in the past five consecutive years.
Earnings estimate revisions indicate how analysts view a firm’s short-term profits. The company has an Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade of C, based on a score of 42, which is neutral. The grade is based on the statistical significance of its latest two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months. The company reported a negative earnings surprise of 3.1% for third-quarter 2026, and in the prior quarter reported a positive earnings surprise of 45.5%. Over the past month, the consensus earnings estimate for full-year 2026 has decreased from $2.556 to $2.504 per share based on three upward revisions.
Micron Technology Inc. (MU) is a global semiconductor company operating mainly within the U.S., Asia and Europe. It offers memory and storage solutions for a broad range of computing, networking and mobile applications. Micron Technology designs and manufactures dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), NAND flash and NOR flash products that power data centers, smartphones and vehicle internals. It also invests heavily in advancing memory technology to address the growing demands of AI. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Boise, Idaho.
Micron Technology has a Momentum Grade of A, based on its Momentum Score of 98. This means that the stock’s momentum is very strong in terms of its weighted relative strength over the last four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters, with the most recent quarterly price change given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters given a weight of 20%. The ranks are 73, 97, 83 and 98, sequentially from the most recent quarter, with higher ranks signaling stronger price momentum. The weighted four-quarter relative price strength is 35.6%.
The company has a Quality Grade of A, based on a score of 92, which is very strong. Higher-quality stocks possess traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. The Quality Grade is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals to assets, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and F-Score. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.
Micron Technology ranks strongly in terms of its return on assets and F-Score. Its return on assets is 61%, ranking in the 99th percentile, and its F-Score is 8, ranking in the 92nd percentile. The F-Score is a number between 0 and 9 that assesses the strength of a company’s financial position based on its profitability, leverage, liquidity and operating efficiency.
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Photronics Inc. (PLAB) is a global semiconductor and flat-panel display company operating in the U.S., Europe and Asia. It offers photomasks used in the fabrication of integrated circuits and flat-panel displays for semiconductor manufacturers and electronics companies worldwide. The company serves leading chipmakers and display manufacturers by producing high-precision photomasks that serve as templates for transferring circuit patterns onto semiconductor wafers. Photronics supports both leading-edge and mature technology nodes across its global network of manufacturing facilities. The company was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Brookfield, Connecticut.
The company has a Value Grade of B, based on its Value Score of 78, which is good value. Photronics has an enterprise-value-to-EBITDA ratio of 3.9, ranking in the 7th percentile. It also has a price-earnings ratio of 10.2, ranking in the 18th percentile.
Photronics has a Growth Grade of B, which is strong. Its five-year annualized sales growth rate is 6.9%, and it has generated positive annual cash from operations in the past five consecutive years.
The company has a Momentum Grade of B, based on its Momentum Score of 76. This means that the stock’s momentum is strong in terms of its weighted relative strength over the last four quarters. The ranks are 57, 9, 90 and 94, sequentially from the most recent quarter. The weighted four-quarter relative price strength is 4.9%.