Why do I get the development snapshot?

Question

I am following the instructions given on Updating Drupal core via Composer for users using the drupal/core-recommended package.

I have the following lines in the composer.json file.

    "minimum-stability": "dev",
    "prefer-stable": true,

   "require": {
     "drupal/core-composer-scaffold": "^9",
     "drupal/core-project-message": "^9",
     "drupal/core-recommended": "^9",
   },
   
 "require-dev": {
        "drupal/core-dev": "^9"
    },

Instead of Drupal 9.4.5, I get Drupal 9.5.0-dev.

Can anybody explain why?

Answer 1

I needed to change

    "require": {
         ...
        "drupal/core-composer-scaffold": "^9",
        "drupal/core-project-message": "^9",
        "drupal/core-recommended": "^9",
         ...
        },
   
 "require-dev": {
        "drupal/core-dev": "^9"
    },

to

    "require": {
         ...
        "drupal/core-composer-scaffold": "^9.4",
        "drupal/core-project-message": "^9.4",
        "drupal/core-recommended": "^9.4",
         ...
        },
   
 "require-dev": {
        "drupal/core-dev": "^9.4"
    },