Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Shares Down 1.8% After Analyst Downgrade

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)’s stock price traded down 1.8% during trading on Monday 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 $88.40 and last traded at $88.51. 7,645,532 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 65% from the average session volume of 21,952,170 shares. The stock had previously closed at $90.12.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the company. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Micron Technology from $150.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Bank of America lowered shares of Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $125.00 to $110.00 in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Micron Technology from $180.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report 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, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $135.24.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.00, for a total transaction of $552,570.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 135,830 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,348,790. The trade was a 3.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp boosted 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 valued at $5,001,592,000 after acquiring an additional 1,434,568 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 0.6% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted 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 valued at $2,451,987,000 after purchasing an additional 892,607 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in Micron Technology by 21.7% during 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 valued at $1,174,643,000 after purchasing an additional 2,022,180 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in Micron Technology by 30.6% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 10,564,198 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,109,769,000 after buying an additional 2,477,985 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Micron Technology Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.64 and a quick ratio of 1.68. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $102.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $108.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $99.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 131.30 and a beta of 1.16.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $8.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.71 billion. Micron Technology had a return on equity of 1.58% and a net margin of 3.10%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.95) EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 30th will be given a dividend of $0.115 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 30th. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. 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.