Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Trading Down 1.8% – Should You Sell?

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)’s share price dropped 1.8% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $93.12 and last traded at $93.74. Approximately 5,110,858 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 22,188,643 shares. The stock had previously closed at $95.41.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MU. Bank of America downgraded shares of Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $125.00 to $110.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Micron Technology from $180.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $98.00 to $91.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twenty-three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $134.96.

Micron Technology Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The stock has a market cap of $104.50 billion, a PE ratio of 27.06 and a beta of 1.18. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $96.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $98.93.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $8.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.71 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.95) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 30th were issued a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 30th. Micron Technology’s payout ratio is currently 13.26%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Micron Technology

In related news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.21, for a total value of $416,676.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 181,223 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,442,011.83. This trade represents a 2.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Micron Technology by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,857,205 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $8,403,982,000 after purchasing an additional 888,087 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,434,568 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 34.6% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,672,462 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $4,012,114,000 after buying an additional 12,249,341 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Micron Technology by 63.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 41,096,391 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $3,458,673,000 after acquiring an additional 15,993,036 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 206,499 shares during the period. 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.