Traders Purchase High Volume of Micron Technology Call Options (NASDAQ:MU)

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Traders bought 499,518 call options on the company. This is an increase of 132% compared to the average volume of 215,663 call options.

Micron Technology Stock Up 0.9 %

MU stock opened at $103.00 on Friday. 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 has a one year low of $83.54 and a one year high of $157.54. The company has a fifty day moving average of $96.92 and a 200-day moving average of $98.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $114.76 billion, a PE ratio of 29.68 and a beta of 1.23.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.13. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The firm had revenue of $8.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Micron Technology will post 6.08 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on MU. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $150.00 to $130.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased 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 note on Wednesday, December 18th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $125.00 price target on shares of Micron Technology in a research note on Monday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $145.00 to $128.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $134.16.

Insider Activity at Micron Technology

In related news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total value of $223,403.72. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 27,358 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,542,378.94. This trade represents a 8.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Micron Technology

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,857,205 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $8,403,982,000 after purchasing an additional 888,087 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 48,226,710 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $5,001,592,000 after purchasing an additional 1,434,568 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 34.6% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,672,462 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $4,012,114,000 after purchasing an additional 12,249,341 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Micron Technology by 63.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 41,096,391 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $3,458,673,000 after acquiring an additional 15,993,036 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA increased its holdings in Micron Technology by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 37,631,860 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $3,902,800,000 after acquiring an additional 206,499 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

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.