Micron Technology (MU) late Wednesday beat Wall Street's raised expectations for the company's fiscal second quarter. It also guided higher for the current period. The earnings report drove MU stock up in extended trading.

The Boise, Idaho-based company earned an adjusted 98 cents a share on sales of $6.24 billion in the quarter ended March 4. Analysts expected Micron earnings of 95 cents a share on sales of $6.21 billion. On a year-over-year basis, Micron earnings jumped 118% while sales climbed 30%.

On March 3, Micron raised its sales and earnings guidance for the quarter. The earnings report also follows news that Micron is ceasing development of 3D XPoint chips, which has been a drag on earnings.

"Micron's strong fiscal second-quarter performance reflects rapidly improving market conditions and continued solid execution," Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra said in a news release.

He added, "Our technology leadership in both DRAM and Nand (memory chips) places Micron in an excellent position to capitalize on the secular demand driven by AI and 5G, and to deliver new levels of user experience and innovation across the data center and intelligent edge."

MU Stock Advances In Late Trades

In after-hours trading on the stock market today, MU stock climbed 2%, near 90. During the regular session Wednesday, MU stock rose 1.9% to 88.21.

For the current quarter, Micron expects to earn an adjusted $1.62 a share on sales of $7.1 billion. That's based on the midpoint of its guidance for the fiscal third quarter. Wall Street was modeling Micron earnings of $1.32 a share on sales of $6.79 billion. In the year-earlier period, Micron earnings were 82 cents a share on sales of $5.31 billion.

The DRAM market is "in severe shortage," which has led to higher prices, Mehrotra said on a conference call with analysts. Meanwhile, the Nand market is showing signs of stabilization, he said.

DRAM chips act as the main memory in PCs, smartphones and other devices, working closely with central processing units. Nand flash provides longer-term data storage. DRAM accounted for 71% of Micron's revenue last quarter, with Nand flash chips contributing 26% of sales.

In the second quarter, Micron posted record sales for Nand chips for smartphones and for automotive memory and storage chips. Micron also benefited from healthy notebook PC demand and an improving data center market.