Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Trading 2.1% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)’s stock price was up 2.1% on Monday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $110.00 to $115.00. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Micron Technology traded as high as $98.42 and last traded at $96.67. Approximately 12,123,322 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 46% from the average daily volume of 22,466,174 shares. The stock had previously closed at $94.72.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price target on Micron Technology from $250.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Micron Technology from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $125.00 to $110.00 in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reduced their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Micron Technology has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $132.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were 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 directly owns 27,358 shares in the company, valued at $2,542,378.94. The trade was a 8.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Micron Technology

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MU. Norges Bank bought a new position in Micron Technology during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,470,875,000. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 63.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 41,096,391 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $3,458,673,000 after purchasing an additional 15,993,036 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 34.6% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,672,462 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $4,012,114,000 after purchasing an additional 12,249,341 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 139.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 16,281,620 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,370,280,000 after buying an additional 9,489,579 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its holdings in Micron Technology by 36.3% during 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. 80.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Micron Technology Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $96.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $98.40. The firm has a market cap of $108.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.94 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $8.05 billion for 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 business’s revenue was up 38.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.115 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. Micron Technology’s payout ratio is 11.03%.

About Micron Technology

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.