Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.12

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, March 21st, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.115 per share by the semiconductor manufacturer on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st.

Micron Technology has raised its dividend by an average of 32.0% per year over the last three years. Micron Technology has a payout ratio of 4.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Micron Technology to earn $10.67 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.46 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 4.3%.

Micron Technology Stock Performance

Shares of Micron Technology stock traded down $8.24 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $94.76. 53,128,368 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 22,834,169. Micron Technology has a one year low of $83.54 and a one year high of $157.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $105.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.31 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $96.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $98.22.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.56 earnings per share (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 company had revenue of $8.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.42 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 38.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Micron Technology will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total transaction of $223,403.72. Following the transaction, the director now owns 27,358 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,542,378.94. This represents a 8.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Micron Technology

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Micron Technology stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 18.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,318 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after buying an additional 976 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $532,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on MU. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered 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 Friday. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Micron Technology from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $250.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Finally, KGI Securities raised shares of Micron Technology to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Micron Technology presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $132.92.

Micron Technology Company 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.