Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Trading Up 3% – Time to Buy?

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) rose 3% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $103.68 and last traded at $101.50. Approximately 10,865,945 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 49% from the average daily volume of 21,377,746 shares. The stock had previously closed at $98.55.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Micron Technology from an “outperform” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $140.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Micron Technology from $165.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Micron Technology from $190.00 to $175.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Micron Technology from $100.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Micron Technology has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $143.04.

Micron Technology Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average price of $103.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $110.88. The company has a market cap of $114.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 151.77 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a quick ratio of 1.68, a current ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, September 25th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $7.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.65 billion. Micron Technology had a return on equity of 1.58% and a net margin of 3.10%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 93.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($1.21) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 8.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 7th were issued a $0.115 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 7th. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. Micron Technology’s payout ratio is currently 67.65%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the business’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 transaction of $552,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 135,830 shares in the company, valued at $15,348,790. The trade was a 3.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Micron Technology

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MU. Dantai Capital Ltd lifted its position in shares of Micron Technology by 25.0% during the third quarter. Dantai Capital Ltd now owns 22,945 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $2,380,000 after purchasing an additional 4,590 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Micron Technology by 4.6% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,283,124 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $789,054,000 after acquiring an additional 321,955 shares during the period. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp boosted its position in Micron Technology by 3.2% in the third quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 13,102 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,359,000 after purchasing an additional 411 shares during the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Micron Technology by 58.8% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 21,859 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $2,267,000 after purchasing an additional 8,095 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Micron Technology by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 106,840 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $11,080,000 after purchasing an additional 420 shares during the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.