Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) Short Interest Update

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 32,000,000 shares, a decline of 15.5% from the February 13th total of 37,870,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 23,890,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.3 days. Approximately 2.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Micron Technology news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of Micron Technology stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.21, for a total transaction of $416,676.90. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 181,223 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,442,011.83. The trade was a 2.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of Micron Technology stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total value of $223,403.72. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 27,358 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,542,378.94. This trade represents a 8.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Micron Technology

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Micron Technology in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,470,875,000. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Micron Technology by 63.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 41,096,391 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $3,458,673,000 after acquiring an additional 15,993,036 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Micron Technology by 34.6% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,672,462 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $4,012,114,000 after acquiring an additional 12,249,341 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Micron Technology by 139.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 16,281,620 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,370,280,000 after acquiring an additional 9,489,579 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its position in Micron Technology by 36.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,437,080 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,383,442,000 after acquiring an additional 4,375,232 shares in the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MU has been the topic of several analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Micron Technology from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Micron Technology from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Micron Technology from $145.00 to $128.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Micron Technology from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued 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 target price of $134.16.

Micron Technology Stock Performance

Micron Technology stock opened at $103.11 on Tuesday. 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 stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $96.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $98.13. Micron Technology has a fifty-two week low of $83.54 and a fifty-two week high of $157.54. The stock has a market cap of $114.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.71 and a beta of 1.23.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.19. Micron Technology had a return on equity of 8.32% and a net margin of 13.34%. The firm had revenue of $8.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.95) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Micron Technology will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 30th were given a $0.115 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 30th. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.