Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Shares Down 2.2% – Time to Sell?

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) was down 2.2% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $100.41 and last traded at $100.96. Approximately 3,979,412 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 22,462,148 shares. The stock had previously closed at $103.18.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on MU. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on Micron Technology from $150.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Micron Technology from $145.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Micron Technology from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $125.00 to $110.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twenty-three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Micron Technology has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $134.96.

Micron Technology Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 2.72. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $96.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $98.70. The stock has a market cap of $109.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.22 and a beta of 1.18.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last released 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 firm had revenue of $8.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.71 billion. Micron Technology had a return on equity of 8.32% and a net margin of 13.34%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.95) earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 30th were paid a dividend of $0.115 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 30th. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.26%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Micron Technology

In other Micron Technology news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.21, for a total transaction of $416,676.90. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 181,223 shares in the company, valued at $15,442,011.83. This represents a 2.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Micron Technology

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MU. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Micron Technology by 30.4% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,455,819 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $358,403,000 after buying an additional 806,639 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. increased its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 22.4% during the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 1,481 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $154,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 2.7% during the third quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 35,999 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $3,734,000 after purchasing an additional 960 shares in the last quarter. Eastern Bank bought a new position in shares of Micron Technology during the third quarter valued at approximately $147,000. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 13.4% during the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 85,125 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $8,828,000 after purchasing an additional 10,028 shares in the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.