Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) shares gapped down prior to trading on Thursday after UBS Group lowered their price target on the stock from $135.00 to $125.00. The stock had previously closed at $103.90, but opened at $90.08. UBS Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Micron Technology shares last traded at $86.37, with a volume of 20,483,340 shares traded.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on MU. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Micron Technology from $150.00 to $130.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. 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 report on Wednesday. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of Micron Technology in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, TD Cowen cut their target price on Micron Technology from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twenty-five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Micron Technology currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $139.89.

Insider Transactions at Micron Technology

In related news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.00, for a total value of $552,570.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 135,830 shares in the company, valued at $15,348,790. This represents a 3.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in Micron Technology by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 48,226,710 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $5,001,592,000 after acquiring an additional 1,434,568 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its holdings 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 valued at $3,902,800,000 after acquiring an additional 206,499 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Micron Technology by 3.9% during 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 acquiring an additional 892,607 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake 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 worth $1,174,643,000 after acquiring an additional 2,022,180 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 30.6% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 10,564,198 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,109,769,000 after purchasing an additional 2,477,985 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Micron Technology Stock Down 16.4 %

The company has a current ratio of 2.64, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $96.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 127.77 and a beta of 1.16. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $103.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $109.09.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.19. Micron Technology had a net margin of 3.10% and a return on equity of 1.58%. The firm had revenue of $8.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.95) earnings per share. Micron Technology’s revenue was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 8.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, October 7th were issued a dividend of $0.115 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 7th. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. Micron Technology’s payout ratio is currently 67.65%.

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.