Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Stock Price Down 17.5% After Analyst Downgrade

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) traded down 17.5% during trading on Thursday after Barclays lowered their price target on the stock from $145.00 to $110.00. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Micron Technology traded as low as $85.00 and last traded at $85.75. 42,447,487 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 96% from the average session volume of 21,693,350 shares. The stock had previously closed at $103.90.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on MU. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Micron Technology from $180.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Micron Technology from $175.00 to $165.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. KeyCorp dropped their target price on Micron Technology from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. BNP Paribas cut Micron Technology from an “outperform” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $140.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Micron Technology has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $132.26.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.00, for a total value of $552,570.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 135,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,348,790. This trade represents a 3.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Micron Technology

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MU. LRI Investments LLC boosted its stake in Micron Technology by 57.2% during the 2nd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 272 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Institute for Wealth Management LLC. boosted its position in shares of Micron Technology by 8.7% during the second quarter. Institute for Wealth Management LLC. now owns 5,100 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $671,000 after purchasing an additional 409 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 43.1% in the 2nd quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC now owns 4,397 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $578,000 after buying an additional 1,324 shares during the period. WT Asset Management Ltd increased its position in shares of Micron Technology by 51.1% in the 2nd quarter. WT Asset Management Ltd now owns 664,942 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $87,460,000 after buying an additional 224,743 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Independence Bank of Kentucky raised its stake in Micron Technology by 100.1% during the 2nd quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 2,161 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $284,000 after buying an additional 1,081 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Micron Technology Trading Up 3.5 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.68, a current ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $100.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 132.53 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $103.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $108.67.

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

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

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