Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Shares Gap Down – Here’s Why

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) shares gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $94.08, but opened at $89.60. Micron Technology shares last traded at $91.97, with a volume of 8,043,724 shares changing hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MU has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $145.00 to $128.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased 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, December 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $150.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twenty-three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Micron Technology currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $134.96.

Micron Technology Price Performance

The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $96.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $98.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 2.72. The firm has a market cap of $102.92 billion, a PE ratio of 26.62 and a beta of 1.18.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $8.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.71 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The business’s revenue was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.95) EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 30th were issued a dividend of $0.115 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 30th. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 13.26%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Micron Technology

In related news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.21, for a total value of $416,676.90. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 181,223 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,442,011.83. This trade represents a 2.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,857,205 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $8,403,982,000 after buying an additional 888,087 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 3.1% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 0.6% in the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 37,631,860 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $3,902,800,000 after buying an additional 206,499 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 3.9% in the third 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. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Micron Technology in the fourth quarter worth $1,470,875,000. 80.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.