Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Saturday.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on MU. Barclays cut their price objective on Micron Technology from $115.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. KGI Securities raised Micron Technology to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $112.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. China Renaissance lowered shares of Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $84.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada set a $125.00 price objective on shares of Micron Technology in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $129.00.

Micron Technology Trading Up 3.7%

Shares of MU stock opened at $119.84 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 2.72. Micron Technology has a 1 year low of $61.54 and a 1 year high of $157.54. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $89.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $92.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $133.93 billion, a PE ratio of 34.54 and a beta of 1.28.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last posted 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 business had revenue of $8.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.93 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 38.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Micron Technology will post 6.08 EPS for the current year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a dividend of $0.115 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.38%. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 11.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Micron Technology

In related news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $192,320.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 24,954 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,996,320. The trade was a 8.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra sold 3,938 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.88, for a total transaction of $436,645.44. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 387,175 shares in the company, valued at $42,929,964. This trade represents a 1.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 44,904 shares of company stock worth $4,665,124 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in Micron Technology in the first quarter valued at about $57,628,000. SWS Partners grew its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. SWS Partners now owns 21,529 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,871,000 after purchasing an additional 531 shares during the period. Westbourne Investments Inc. grew its position in Micron Technology by 555.9% in the first quarter. Westbourne Investments Inc. now owns 17,590 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,528,000 after acquiring an additional 14,908 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth grew its position in Micron Technology by 312.1% in the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 138,878 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $12,067,000 after acquiring an additional 105,178 shares during the period. Finally, Integrity Alliance LLC. grew its position in Micron Technology by 278.8% in the first quarter. Integrity Alliance LLC. now owns 20,901 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,816,000 after acquiring an additional 15,384 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

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.