Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU – Get Rating) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning. The firm issued a hold rating on the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on MU. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Micron Technology from a buy rating to a hold rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Monday, December 12th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $54.00 to $52.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 22nd. Mizuho raised shares of Micron Technology from a neutral rating to a buy rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $48.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Friday, February 10th. Finally, Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $70.00 to $66.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $66.26.

Micron Technology Stock Performance

Shares of Micron Technology stock opened at $56.66 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $61.83 billion, a PE ratio of 10.28 and a beta of 1.39. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a current ratio of 3.51. Micron Technology has a 1 year low of $48.43 and a 1 year high of $86.24.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, December 21st. The semiconductor manufacturer reported ($0.15) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.13) by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $4.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.14 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 22.78% and a return on equity of 13.26%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 46.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.07 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Micron Technology will post -2.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 19th. Investors of record on Tuesday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.115 per share. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 30th. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.35%.

Insider Activity at Micron Technology

In related news, EVP Scott J. Deboer sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.40, for a total transaction of $1,068,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 228,340 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,193,356. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Scott J. Deboer sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.40, for a total transaction of $1,068,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 228,340 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,193,356. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Robert P. Beard sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.25, for a total transaction of $183,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 42,840 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,623,950. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 67,000 shares of company stock valued at $3,982,190 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Micron Technology

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Micron Technology by 411.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 15,274,070 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $763,398,000 after buying an additional 12,286,893 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Micron Technology in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $581,559,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Micron Technology in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $374,114,000. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in Micron Technology by 59.2% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 14,185,790 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $709,006,000 after buying an additional 5,274,984 shares during the period. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its stake in Micron Technology by 327.0% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 5,356,380 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $267,722,000 after buying an additional 4,101,975 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.02% of the company’s stock.

About Micron Technology

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Micron Technology, Inc engages in the provision of innovative memory and storage solutions. It operates through the following segments: Compute & Networking Business Unit (CNBU), Mobile Business Unit (MBU), Storage Business Unit (SBU), and Embedded Business Unit (EBU). The CNBU segment includes memory products sold into cloud server, enterprise, client, graphics, and networking markets.