Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Stock

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) had its target price raised by Barclays from $110.00 to $115.00 in a research report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Micron Technology from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price target on Micron Technology from $250.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. UBS Group upped their price target on Micron Technology from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $125.00 price target on shares of Micron Technology in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Micron Technology from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Micron Technology presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $132.63.

Micron Technology Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MU opened at $94.72 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $105.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.30 and a beta of 1.23. Micron Technology has a 1-year low of $83.54 and a 1-year high of $157.54. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $96.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $98.34.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $8.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.93 billion. Micron Technology had a return on equity of 8.32% and a net margin of 13.34%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 38.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.42 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Micron Technology will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.115 per share. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 11.03%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Micron Technology news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total transaction of $223,403.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 27,358 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,542,378.94. This represents a 8.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Micron Technology

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Micron Technology in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,470,875,000. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 63.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 41,096,391 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $3,458,673,000 after buying an additional 15,993,036 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 34.6% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,672,462 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $4,012,114,000 after buying an additional 12,249,341 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 139.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 16,281,620 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,370,280,000 after buying an additional 9,489,579 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 36.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,437,080 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,383,442,000 after buying an additional 4,375,232 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Micron Technology Company Profile

Micron Technology, Inc designs, develops, manufactures, and sells memory and storage products worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Compute and Networking Business Unit, Mobile Business Unit, Embedded Business Unit, and Storage Business Unit. It provides memory and storage technologies comprising dynamic random access memory semiconductor devices with low latency that provide high-speed data retrieval; non-volatile and re-writeable semiconductor storage devices; and non-volatile re-writable semiconductor memory devices that provide fast read speeds under the Micron and Crucial brands, as well as through private labels.