Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Shares Down 3.3% After Insider Selling

Shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) traded down 3.3% on Friday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $88.60 and last traded at $88.17. 4,406,255 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average session volume of 22,197,486 shares. The stock had previously closed at $91.16.

Specifically, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.18, for a total value of $1,442,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 164,769 shares in the company, valued at $15,847,482.42. This trade represents a 8.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Micron Technology from $150.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Micron Technology from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $145.00 to $128.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $129.76.

Micron Technology Price Performance

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $96.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $98.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $98.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.41 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 2.72.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.13. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The business had revenue of $8.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.93 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.42 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 38.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. 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 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 0.52%. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 11.03%.

Institutional Trading of Micron Technology

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Micron Technology by 0.9% during 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Micron Technology by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 48,226,710 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $5,001,592,000 after acquiring an additional 1,434,568 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 34.6% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,672,462 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $4,012,114,000 after acquiring an additional 12,249,341 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Micron Technology by 63.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 15,993,036 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Micron Technology by 3.1% during 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 purchasing an additional 726,282 shares in the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.