Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Shares Down 1.6% After Analyst Downgrade

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) shares fell 1.6% on Tuesday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $98.00 to $91.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Micron Technology traded as low as $88.73 and last traded at $89.63. 11,800,899 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 54% from the average session volume of 25,701,277 shares. The stock had previously closed at $91.11.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Micron Technology in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $175.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $140.00 target price on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Micron Technology from $180.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $134.96.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 181,223 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,442,011.83. This trade represents a 2.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Micron Technology

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Harmony Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 75.6% during the 3rd quarter. Harmony Asset Management LLC now owns 11,889 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,233,000 after acquiring an additional 5,120 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. increased its position in Micron Technology by 241.7% during the 3rd quarter. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. now owns 41,000 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $4,252,000 after buying an additional 29,000 shares in the last quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Micron Technology by 26.4% in the 3rd quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC now owns 195,115 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $20,236,000 after purchasing an additional 40,802 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Micron Technology by 3.1% during 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 last quarter. Finally, Global X Japan Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Micron Technology by 23.1% during the 3rd quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 51,832 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $5,375,000 after purchasing an additional 9,735 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Micron Technology Trading Down 3.1 %

The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $98.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $100.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The firm has a market cap of $98.33 billion, a PE ratio of 25.43 and a beta of 1.18.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.19. Micron Technology had a return on equity of 8.32% and a net margin of 13.34%. The firm had revenue of $8.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.95) earnings per share. Micron Technology’s revenue for the quarter was up 84.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 30th were paid a dividend of $0.115 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 30th. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Micron Technology’s payout ratio is currently 13.26%.

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.