Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Shares Down 7.7% After Analyst Downgrade

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) shares fell 7.7% during mid-day trading on Friday after Citigroup lowered their price target on the stock from $150.00 to $120.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Micron Technology traded as low as $94.06 and last traded at $95.11. 25,298,804 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 11% from the average session volume of 22,697,759 shares. The stock had previously closed at $103.00.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $130.00 target price on shares of Micron Technology in a report on Friday. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Micron Technology presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $132.63.

Insider Activity

In other 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 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Micron Technology by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,857,205 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $8,403,982,000 after buying an additional 888,087 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position 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 buying an additional 1,434,568 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Micron Technology by 34.6% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Micron Technology by 63.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 41,096,391 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $3,458,673,000 after buying an additional 15,993,036 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Micron Technology by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,449,827 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $2,052,973,000 after buying an additional 726,282 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Micron Technology Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company has a market cap of $105.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.30 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $96.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $98.21.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $8.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.93 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The firm 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 dividend of $0.115 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.26%.

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.