Salem Investment Counselors Inc. Lowers Position in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 26.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 223,641 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after selling 81,903 shares during the period. Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $19,457,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 18.3% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,318 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $532,000 after purchasing an additional 976 shares during the period. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Micron Technology by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,867 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $410,000 after buying an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. grew its stake in Micron Technology by 69.8% during the fourth quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 4,550 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $383,000 after buying an additional 1,871 shares during the period. Leavell Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Micron Technology in the fourth quarter worth $290,000. Finally, Capital Advisors Inc. OK raised its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 19.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK now owns 2,827 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $238,000 after acquiring an additional 454 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MU. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Wedbush reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Micron Technology in a report on Monday, April 28th. China Renaissance cut Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $84.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $129.00.

Micron Technology Trading Up 0.1%

Micron Technology stock opened at $116.18 on Friday. Micron Technology, Inc. has a 1 year low of $61.54 and a 1 year high of $157.54. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $87.20 and its 200-day moving average is $92.51. 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 company has a market cap of $129.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.48 and a beta of 1.28.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last issued its 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 firm had revenue of $8.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.93 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. Micron Technology’s revenue was up 38.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.42 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. Micron Technology’s payout ratio is 11.03%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $192,320.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 24,954 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,996,320. This trade represents a 8.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.18, for a total transaction of $1,442,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 164,769 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,847,482.42. The trade was a 8.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 44,904 shares of company stock valued at $4,665,124. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.