Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Receives “Overweight” Rating from Cantor Fitzgerald

Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated their overweight rating on shares of Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has a $130.00 target price on the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock.

MU has been the subject of several other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $180.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $130.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Bank of America downgraded shares of Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $125.00 to $110.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $145.00 to $128.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $132.63.

Micron Technology Price Performance

MU stock opened at $94.72 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $96.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $98.21. The company has a market capitalization of $105.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.30 and a beta of 1.23. Micron Technology has a 52-week low of $83.54 and a 52-week high of $157.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 2.72.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last released its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $8.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.93 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Micron Technology will post 6.08 EPS for the current year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.115 per share. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.26%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total transaction of $223,403.72. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 27,358 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,542,378.94. The trade was a 8.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Harmony Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Micron Technology by 75.6% in the third quarter. Harmony Asset Management LLC now owns 11,889 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,233,000 after acquiring an additional 5,120 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. boosted its stake in Micron Technology by 241.7% in the third quarter. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. now owns 41,000 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $4,252,000 after acquiring an additional 29,000 shares during the last quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Micron Technology by 31.8% in the fourth quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 36,378 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $3,062,000 after acquiring an additional 8,780 shares during the last quarter. Stablepoint Partners LLC purchased a new position in Micron Technology in the fourth quarter valued at about $569,000. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 1,434,568 shares during the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is currently 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.