Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Trading 1.5% Higher – Still a Buy?

Shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) were up 1.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $89.92 and last traded at $88.38. Approximately 6,850,717 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 69% from the average daily volume of 21,821,975 shares. The stock had previously closed at $87.08.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $140.00 price target on shares of Micron Technology in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $175.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Bank of America cut Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $125.00 to $110.00 in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $134.96.

Micron Technology Stock Performance

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 firm has a market capitalization of $99.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.84 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $96.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $98.17.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.19. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The company had revenue of $8.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.71 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.95) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 30th were paid a $0.115 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 30th. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.26%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Micron Technology news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.21, for a total transaction of $416,676.90. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 181,223 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,442,011.83. This trade represents a 2.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director now directly owns 27,358 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,542,378.94. This trade represents a 8.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Micron Technology by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,857,205 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $8,403,982,000 after acquiring an additional 888,087 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Micron Technology by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 48,226,710 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $5,001,592,000 after purchasing an additional 1,434,568 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Micron Technology by 34.6% in the 4th 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 period. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Micron Technology by 63.7% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA raised its position in shares of Micron Technology by 0.6% during the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 37,631,860 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $3,902,800,000 after buying an additional 206,499 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.