Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Shares Up 4.7% – Time to Buy?

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) shot up 4.7% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $102.78 and last traded at $99.37. 11,729,651 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 46% from the average session volume of 21,880,461 shares. The stock had previously closed at $94.88.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MU. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $180.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, 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 research note on Thursday, December 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $134.56.

Micron Technology Trading Up 6.2 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $112.30 billion, a PE ratio of 29.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $96.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $98.05.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $8.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.71 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.95) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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 was Monday, December 30th. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.26%.

Insider Transactions at Micron Technology

In related news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the company’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 owns 27,358 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,542,378.94. This represents a 8.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.21, for a total transaction of $416,676.90. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 181,223 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,442,011.83. This represents a 2.63 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Micron Technology

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MU. Norges Bank bought a new position in Micron Technology during the fourth quarter valued at $1,470,875,000. Capital World Investors lifted its position in 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 last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Micron Technology by 34.6% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,672,462 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $4,012,114,000 after purchasing an additional 12,249,341 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Micron Technology by 139.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 16,281,620 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,370,280,000 after purchasing an additional 9,489,579 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its position in Micron Technology by 36.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,437,080 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,383,442,000 after purchasing an additional 4,375,232 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.