Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Buys 188,554 Shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC lifted its position in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 171.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 298,467 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after purchasing an additional 188,554 shares during the period. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $25,119,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MU. Aviva PLC lifted its stake in Micron Technology by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 667,877 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $56,209,000 after acquiring an additional 36,111 shares during the period. Cullen Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Micron Technology in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,078,000. Alpine Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 217.1% in the 4th quarter. Alpine Investment Management Ltd now owns 325,000 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $27,352,000 after purchasing an additional 222,500 shares in the last quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Micron Technology in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,898,000. Finally, Pamalican Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of Micron Technology during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,721,000. Institutional investors own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Micron Technology Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MU opened at $64.72 on Friday. Micron Technology, Inc. has a 52 week low of $63.86 and a 52 week high of $157.54. 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 firm has a market cap of $72.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.65 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $93.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $98.16.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $8.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.93 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 38.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.115 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Micron Technology’s payout ratio is 11.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.18, for a total transaction of $1,442,700.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 164,769 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,847,482.42. This represents a 8.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of Micron Technology 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 directly owns 27,358 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,542,378.94. The trade was a 8.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on MU shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada set a $125.00 price target on Micron Technology in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Needham & Company LLC dropped 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. Bank of America downgraded shares of Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $125.00 to $110.00 in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $150.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $129.76.

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.