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Chicago, IL – August 22, 2025 – Zacks Equity Research shares Micron Technology MU as the Bull of the Day and Albany International AIN as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Tesla TSLA, Alphabet GOOGL and Baidu BIDU.
Here is a synopsis of all five stocks.
Still flying somewhat under the radar, Micron Technology has become a leader in the AI infrastructure boom due to strong demand for its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) solutions.
With HBM being essential to powering generative AI models, Micron’s stock has started to rebound toward its 52-week highs of $129 a share, with some analysts' price targets calling for new all-time peaks.
Considering such, and in correlation with a trend of very positive earnings estimate revisions, Micron stock sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and lands the Bull of the Day.
Attributing to its AI infrastructure dominance, Micron is a key supplier for Nvidia’s Blackwell GB200 and AMD’ Instinct MI350 GPUs, which require massive memory bandwidth.
More intriguing, and leading to Micron’s AI Infrastructure advantage, is its pricing power as HBM products are complex to manufacture and wafer-intensive, making supply tight. Notably, Micron has sold out its HBM output for 2025 and is seeing strong demand into 2026, with the scarcity boosting its margins.
Based on Zacks' estimates, Micron’s total sales are now expected to spike 47% in fiscal 2025 to $36.91 billion compared to $25.11 billion last year. Plus, FY26 sales are projected to climb another 34% to $49.43 billion.
Even more captivating is Micron’s increased profitability, with annual earnings currently slated to skyrocket over 500% this year to $8.04 per share versus EPS of $1.30 in 2024. Better still, FY26 EPS is forecasted to pop another 62% to $13.05.
Leading to bullish sentiment for Micron stock is that FY25 and FY26 EPS estimates have soared 16% and 23% over the last 60 days, respectively, as shown below.
Considering the high premiums AI-infrastructure related stocks are commanding, MU shares still trade at a very reasonable 14.5X forward earnings multiple and at 3.5X forward sales, which are both significant discounts to the S&P 500’s averages.
The culmination of Micron’s execution, along with its reasonable valuation, has led to analysts raising their price targets for MU. It’s noteworthy that JPMorgan raised its price target for MU from $165 to $185, citing stronger DRAM (Dynamic Random-Access Memory) pricing.
Meanwhile, other firms like Mizuho and Needham have remained bullish on Micron’s HBM upside. At the moment, the Average Zacks Price Target of $152.42 suggests 30% upside in Micron stock, which is roughly on par with its all-time high.
Dominating the AI memory space, now appears to be an ideal time to invest in Micron Technology stock, with MU shaping up to be a viable investment for 2025 and beyond.
This month's rebound in Albany International stock could be short-lived, and it may be time to fade the recent rally as the trend of declining earnings estimate revisions suggests that the textiles and materials processing company is not out of the woods yet after facing a number of headwinds in recent years.
Although AIN has spiked +15% in August, Albany International stock is still down 20% year to date and has a grizzly -32% performance in the last three years.
Albany International also appears to be burning through cash at a very fast rate, which is concerning for its operational and financial outlook as well.
Most recently missing its Q2 EPS expectations by 22% in late July, Albany International has raised concerns about its operational efficiency and forecasting accuracy as rising costs and strategic investments have squeezed profit margins, especially in its engineered composites segment. The issue here is that Albany International is also competing in a high-stakes arena of aerospace and advanced materials manufacturing with specialized defense companies such as Ducommun and Hexcel Corporation.
Furthermore, supply chain disruptions have taken a toll on the company’s operations, limiting production as a supplier of fabric for paper and industrial applications and ultimately impacting delivery timelines.
Taking away excitement for a continued rebound in Albany International stock is that fiscal 2025 and FY26 EPS estimates have trended lower in the last 60 days, dipping nearly 2% and 1.6%, respectively.
What may be most concerning to investors is that Albany International has burned through more than half of its liquidity in the last five years, with its cash & equivalents dropping from over $300 million in 2021 to $107 million at the end of Q2 2025.
For now, it may certainly be best to fade the recent rally or avoid Albany International’s stock. Addressing the elephant in the room, Albany International’s growth is respectable, but nothing to necessarily brag about for a company that investors are paying over $60 a share for.
To that point, Albany International has struggled to climb past annual sales of $1 billion or produce full-year EPS of over $4.00, and this is after a drop from a 52-week high of over $90 a share, which may have raised questions about the company’s valuation outside of its operational efficiency.
Two months after Tesla rolled out its first commercial robotaxi service in Austin, the big question is—how’s it really going?
Tesla CEO Elon Musk bets the company’s future on autonomous vehicles, pitching robotaxis as the next growth engine. The launch in Austin on June 22 marked a milestone, with paying customers riding in Model Y vehicles monitored by safety drivers and remote operators. In the initial days of the rollout, videos quickly surfaced showing Tesla vehicles braking abruptly, creeping into intersections, or violating traffic rules. Passengers described some rides as confusing.
Having said that, management reassured on the second-quarter earnings call that robotaxis in Austin logged over 7,000 miles without major safety incidents.
Tesla has also begun testing in the San Francisco Bay Area—though regulators there prevent it from using the “robotaxi” name. Notably, in Austin, the safety monitor sits in the passenger seat but in the Bay Area, regulations still require one in the driver’s seat. Critics, including former Waymo CEO John Krafcik, argue that as long as Tesla vehicles rely on in-car safety monitors, they’re not truly robotaxis at all.
Tesla, however, points to data suggesting that its Full Self-Driving (FSD) system is statistically safer—10 times so, according to management—than human drivers. The shift to the FSD Version 12 has already boosted subscription adoption by 45%. Musk is promising even more with Version 14, which he teased yesterday.
New vehicles can now drive themselves off the assembly line, with direct-to-customer autonomous deliveries planned by year-end in select regions. Also, Tesla aims to extend the robotaxi service to reach half of the U.S. population by the end of 2025, pending regulatory approvals. It plans to expand to other U.S. cities like Nevada, Arizona and Florida after obtaining necessary permits and approvals. Meanwhile, service coverage in Austin is set to grow more than tenfold.
Still, the road ahead isn’t without hazards. Lawsuits accusing Tesla of overstating FSD’s safety, regulatory hurdles in key markets, and technical hiccups highlight the long journey before Musk’s bold vision of a nationwide robotaxi fleet becomes a reality. Plus, Tesla is lagging behind early movers in the robotaxi space like Alphabet’s Waymo and Baidu.
Alphabet’s Waymo is Tesla’s toughest rival in the robotaxi race. Waymo already runs fully driverless Level 4 services in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin and Atlanta, delivering around 250,000 paid rides every week. Backed by Alphabet’s $5 billion multi-year investment and partnerships with Hyundai, Uber and Zeekr, Waymo has both scale and strategic muscle. With expansion underway to cities such as Miami and Washington D.C, Waymo is setting the standard that Tesla must catch up to.
Baidu is a major force in the robotaxi industry, though its efforts are concentrated mainly in China. Its autonomous driving program, Apollo Go, is already running fully driverless robotaxi services across 16 cities globally and has completed more than 14 million rides as of August 2025. Baidu is also fast-tracking Apollo Go’s global expansion through high-profile partnerships with Uber and Lyft.
After two months, Tesla’s robotaxi push is still in the early innings. The company shows tangible progress and expansion potential but remains behind leaders like Waymo and Baidu. With regulatory battles and skepticism ahead, investing in this vision is less about today’s revenues and more about Tesla’s ability to eventually deliver on Musk’s bold promise.
Shares of Tesla have lost around 20% year to date compared with the industry’s decline of 16%.
From a valuation standpoint, TSLA trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 10.12, above the industry and its own 5-year average. It carries a Value Score of D.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for TSLA’s earnings has been southbound over the past 60 days.
Tesla stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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