Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 888,087 Shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 99,857,205 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after acquiring an additional 888,087 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.09% of Micron Technology worth $8,403,982,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Micron Technology by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 734,517 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $61,817,000 after purchasing an additional 35,163 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in shares of Micron Technology during the 4th quarter worth about $31,656,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Micron Technology during the 4th quarter worth about $1,887,000. Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its position in shares of Micron Technology by 46.1% during the 4th quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 105,084 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $8,844,000 after purchasing an additional 33,182 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Micron Technology during the 4th quarter worth about $4,358,000. 80.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Micron Technology Stock Down 8.0 %

Micron Technology stock opened at $94.72 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $96.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $98.28. Micron Technology, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $83.54 and a fifty-two week high of $157.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $105.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.30 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.13. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The firm had revenue of $8.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.42 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 38.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 EPS for the current year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Micron Technology’s payout ratio is currently 11.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Micron Technology

In other Micron Technology news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of Micron Technology stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total value 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. The trade was a 8.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on MU shares. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $130.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $125.00 price objective on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Micron Technology currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $132.63.

Micron Technology 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.