Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Shares Down 0.5% – Time to Sell?

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)’s stock price traded down 0.5% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $88.23 and last traded at $89.28. 13,021,257 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 41% from the average session volume of 21,997,564 shares. The stock had previously closed at $89.72.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective 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. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Bank of America lowered Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $125.00 to $110.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Micron Technology from $175.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded Micron Technology from an “outperform” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $140.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. One 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 an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $135.24.

Micron Technology Stock Up 0.6 %

The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $101.62 and a 200-day moving average price of $107.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a current ratio of 2.64. The firm has a market cap of $100.07 billion, a PE ratio of 132.09 and a beta of 1.16.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $8.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.71 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 3.10% and a return on equity of 1.58%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.95) earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 8.31 EPS for the current year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 30th will be given a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 30th. Micron Technology’s payout ratio is 13.26%.

Insider Activity

In other Micron Technology news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.21, for a total value of $416,676.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 181,223 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,442,011.83. This represents a 2.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Micron Technology

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MU. Independent Solutions Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 30.7% in the third quarter. Independent Solutions Wealth Management LLC now owns 20,958 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $2,174,000 after buying an additional 4,921 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Micron Technology by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,255,931 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $130,253,000 after acquiring an additional 52,912 shares in the last quarter. Dantai Capital Ltd increased its position in shares of Micron Technology by 25.0% in the 3rd quarter. Dantai Capital Ltd now owns 22,945 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $2,380,000 after purchasing an additional 4,590 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,283,124 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $789,054,000 after purchasing an additional 321,955 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Micron Technology by 3.2% during the third quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 13,102 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,359,000 after purchasing an additional 411 shares during the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.