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

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) shares were down 1.6% during mid-day trading 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. Approximately 11,800,899 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 54% from the average daily volume of 25,701,277 shares. The stock had previously closed at $91.11.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $145.00 to $128.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $150.00 to $130.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. TD Cowen lowered their price target 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered 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. One equities 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Micron Technology presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $134.96.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Micron Technology news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of Micron Technology 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $15,442,011.83. The trade was a 2.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Naples Global Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC now owns 38,311 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $3,228,000 after purchasing an additional 3,557 shares during the period. Channing Global Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 42.9% in the fourth quarter. Channing Global Advisors LLC now owns 45,708 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $3,847,000 after buying an additional 13,713 shares during the last quarter. Harvey Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Micron Technology in the fourth quarter worth $2,050,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 723,479 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $63,181,000 after buying an additional 58,690 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC increased its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 25.0% in the fourth quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 8,013 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $674,000 after buying an additional 1,604 shares during the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Micron Technology Trading Up 0.9 %

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 business’s 50 day moving average is $98.04 and its 200-day moving average is $100.48. The firm has a market cap of $99.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.66 and a beta of 1.18.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The business had revenue of $8.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.95) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. Micron Technology’s payout ratio is 13.26%.

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.