DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

Micron Technology Inc.'s (MU) fiscal fourth-quarter loss narrowed sharply amid prior-year write-downs while the latest results topped analysts' expectations as Chairman and Chief Executive Steven Appleton said the market "is beginning to improve."

Shares rose 2.4% after-hours to $8.61. The stock through the close had more than tripled in value this year.

Micron, the last U.S. maker of dynamic random-access memory, or DRAM, chips, has suffered from three years of oversupply. But cuts in capacity throughout the industry have helped turn prices around and a number of companies have reported demand is growing.

For the quarter ended Sept. 3, Micron reported a loss of $88 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $344 million, or 45 cents a share. The prior-year results included a $205 million write-down on memory chips and a $70 million gain related to price adjustments for chips bought from other producers.

Revenue dropped 10% to $1.3 billion.

Analysts' estimates were for a loss of 19 cents a share on revenue of $1.27 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

Gross margin was 13%. The company had posted three-straight quarters of negative readings before the fiscal third quarter as the cost of producing chips fell below their selling price.

Sales of DRAM chips grew 28% from the prior quarter amid a 19% volume jump while NAND flash-memory chips posted 10% growth as volume climbed 23%. DRAM chips are used in personal computers, while NAND chips are found in such devices as MP3 music players and digital cameras.

-By Kathy Shwiff and Kevin Kingsbury, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2357; Kathy.Shwiff@dowjones.com