Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Trading Up 3.8% After Analyst Upgrade

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)’s share price shot up 3.8% on Wednesday after Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on the stock from $140.00 to $165.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Micron Technology traded as high as $157.54 and last traded at $153.45. 42,192,569 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 178% from the average session volume of 15,150,144 shares. The stock had previously closed at $147.83.

A number of other research firms have also commented on MU. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. UBS Group upped their target price on Micron Technology from $125.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Robert W. Baird raised Micron Technology from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $115.00 to $150.00 in a report on Monday, May 6th. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $143.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $150.00 target price on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $137.92.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Michael W. Bokan sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.55, for a total transaction of $1,733,250.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 153,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,723,867.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Michael W. Bokan sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.55, for a total value of $1,733,250.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 153,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,723,867.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra sold 7,000 shares of Micron Technology stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.57, for a total value of $941,990.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 719,049 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $96,762,423.93. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 320,446 shares of company stock worth $38,724,533. 0.32% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Micron Technology by 0.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,833,670 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $737,015,000 after acquiring an additional 80,345 shares during the last quarter. Merlin Capital Inc bought a new position in Micron Technology in the third quarter worth approximately $407,000. TCW Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Micron Technology by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 531,637 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $45,383,000 after acquiring an additional 28,649 shares during the period. Savoie Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Micron Technology in the 3rd quarter worth $4,229,000. Finally, TrinityPoint Wealth LLC lifted its position in Micron Technology by 33.9% during the fourth quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 34,540 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $2,948,000 after purchasing an additional 8,736 shares in the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Micron Technology Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 3.74 and a quick ratio of 2.40. The firm has a market cap of $169.93 billion, a PE ratio of -44.48 and a beta of 1.21. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $125.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $103.17.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by $0.69. Micron Technology had a negative net margin of 20.57% and a negative return on equity of 8.98%. The company had revenue of $5.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.35 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($2.03) EPS. Micron Technology’s revenue for the quarter was up 57.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 0.29 EPS for the current year.

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.