Chipmaker Micron Technology posts 39 percent drop in profit

Micron Technology Inc (MU.O) reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit, hurt by a fall in prices and lower demand for its chips used in personal computers, sending its shares down 7.8 percent in after-market trading.The memory chipmaker had warned of lower revenue last quarter, saying it was willing to hold inventories longer in the face of waning customer demand for electronics featuring its technology.Morgan Stanley analysts said last week a sharp rebound they expected in Micron's earnings was delayed at least until the fourth quarter due to excessive inventories."In the fiscal third quarter, Micron experienced market headwinds driven primarily by weakness in the PC sector," Chief Executive Mark Durcan said in a statement on Thursday.Revenue for the third quarter ended June 4 was hurt primarily by a 10 percent decline in selling prices of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, Micron said. Sales volume of those chips, used mostly in personal computers, remained "relatively flat". Boise, Idaho-based Micron also makes NAND flash memory chips, used to store music, pictures and other data in smartphones, cameras and other mobile devices.Net income attributable to Micron dropped to $491 million, or 42 cents per share, for the third quarter ended June 4, from $806 million, or 68 cents per share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 54 cents per share.Revenue fell to $3.85 billion from $3.98 billion. Analysts had expected a profit of 56 cents per share on revenue of $3.90 billion, according to Thomson I/B/E/S.Micron shares have fell about 31 percent this year through Thursday. (Reporting By Lehar Maan in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das)