Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Trading Down 17.5% After Analyst Downgrade

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)’s stock price dropped 17.5% on Thursday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $114.00 to $98.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Micron Technology traded as low as $85.00 and last traded at $85.75. Approximately 42,447,487 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 96% from the average daily volume of 21,693,350 shares. The stock had previously closed at $103.90.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on MU. Mizuho cut their price target on Micron Technology from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. China Renaissance started coverage on Micron Technology in a report on Monday, October 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $148.00 target price on the stock. Raymond James upped their price target on Micron Technology from $125.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Micron Technology in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Micron Technology has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $133.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.00, for a total value of $552,570.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 135,830 shares in the company, valued at $15,348,790. The trade was a 3.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Micron Technology

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MU. State Street Corp grew its stake in Micron Technology by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 48,226,710 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $5,001,592,000 after buying an additional 1,434,568 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its position in Micron Technology by 0.6% during the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 37,631,860 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $3,902,800,000 after purchasing an additional 206,499 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Micron Technology by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 23,723,545 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $2,451,987,000 after buying an additional 892,607 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Micron Technology by 21.7% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,326,224 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,174,643,000 after buying an additional 2,022,180 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in Micron Technology by 30.6% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 10,564,198 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,109,769,000 after acquiring an additional 2,477,985 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Micron Technology Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $97.02 billion, a PE ratio of 128.08 and a beta of 1.16. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $103.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $108.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.64 and a quick ratio of 1.68.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.19. Micron Technology had a return on equity of 1.58% and a net margin of 3.10%. The business had revenue of $8.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.95) EPS. Micron Technology’s quarterly revenue was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 8.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 30th will be given a dividend of $0.115 per share. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 30th. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.26%.

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.