Brandes Investment Partners LP Acquires 56,328 Shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Brandes Investment Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 4.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,281,232 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after buying an additional 56,328 shares during the quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP’s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $107,828,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew its stake in Micron Technology by 3.1% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its stake in Micron Technology by 0.6% in the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 37,631,860 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $3,902,800,000 after purchasing an additional 206,499 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Micron Technology by 3.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 23,723,545 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $2,451,987,000 after purchasing an additional 892,607 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Micron Technology by 21.7% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,326,224 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,174,643,000 after purchasing an additional 2,022,180 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Micron Technology by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 9,956,311 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $837,923,000 after purchasing an additional 144,897 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MU has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Micron Technology from $180.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Mizuho lowered their target price on Micron Technology from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Micron Technology from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. KGI Securities upgraded Micron Technology to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Micron Technology from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Micron Technology presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $134.56.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total transaction of $223,403.72. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 27,358 shares in the company, valued at $2,542,378.94. This trade represents a 8.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the firm’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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 181,223 shares in the company, valued at $15,442,011.83. This trade represents a 2.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Micron Technology Price Performance

Shares of MU opened at $100.79 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $96.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $98.05. The company has a market capitalization of $112.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 2.72. Micron Technology, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $83.54 and a fifty-two week high of $157.54.

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

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 30th were given a dividend of $0.115 per share. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 30th. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.26%.

Micron Technology 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.