Morgan Stanley Portfolio Manager: ‘I Don’t Think We’re Close’ to a Dot-Com Bubble

Andrew Slimmon, elder portfolio manager astatine Morgan Stanley Investment Management, utilized his caller quality connected Barron's Streetwise podcast to propulsion backmost connected the loudest communicative successful markets close now. "I deliberation astir the dot-com bubble, and I don't deliberation we're adjacent to it," Slimmon said. His grounds sits successful plain show connected the semiconductor tape, and the cleanest illustration is Micron.

The Valuation Argument Starts With Micron

Host Jack Hough framed the setup by pointing retired that Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) "was precocious the 3rd cheapest banal successful the S&P 500 if you conscionable look astatine the price-to-earnings ratio," contempt the institution sitting astatine the halfway of the AI representation proviso chain. Slimmon's effect was that representation stocks "aren't each that expensive," recalling that during the existent late-1990s mania "some of them traded to triple-digit multiples."

The mathematics backs him up. Micron trades astatine $751 with a trailing PE of 35 and, much importantly, a guardant PE of conscionable 8. A PEG ratio of 0.259 signals that net maturation is outpacing the aggregate by a wide margin. In 1999, semiconductor leaders routinely commanded multiples that would connote Micron should beryllium priced respective times higher than it is today.

The expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 stocks and Micron Technology wasn't 1 of them. Get them present FREE.

Earnings Are Doing the Heavy Lifting

Slimmon's broader constituent is that investors are "being precise rational" successful however they terms AI exposure. The Micron net cadence supports that read.

In its astir caller quarter, reported March 18, 2026, Micron posted EPS of $12.20 against an estimation of $8.79, a 39% beat. The anterior quarter, reported December 17, 2025, delivered $4.78 connected gross of $13.64 billion, up 57% twelvemonth implicit year, with the Cloud Memory Business Unit unsocial contributing $5.28 cardinal astatine a 66% gross margin. Fueled by explosive AI growth, existent second-quarter gross vastly outpaced archetypal expectations by skyrocketing to $23.86 billion. Order books reportedly agelong heavy into 2027.