Fifth Third Bancorp Raises Stake in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Fifth Third Bancorp grew its stake in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 1.0% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 179,214 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,756 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $15,572,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MU. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in Micron Technology by 18.3% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,318 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $532,000 after acquiring an additional 976 shares during the period. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 7.3% during the 4th quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,867 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $410,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the period. Focus Financial Network Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 69.8% during the 4th quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 4,550 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $383,000 after purchasing an additional 1,871 shares during the period. Leavell Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Micron Technology during the 4th quarter worth about $290,000. Finally, Capital Advisors Inc. OK raised its holdings in 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 buying an additional 454 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on MU shares. Royal Bank of Canada set a $125.00 target price on shares of Micron Technology in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $115.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $130.00 price target on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, China Renaissance cut Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $84.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $129.00.

Micron Technology Stock Up 0.1%

MU stock opened at $116.18 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $87.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $92.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $129.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.48 and a beta of 1.28. Micron Technology, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $61.54 and a fifty-two week high of $157.54. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $8.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 38.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 11.03%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Micron Technology news, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra sold 3,938 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.88, for a total value of $436,645.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 387,175 shares in the company, valued at $42,929,964. This represents a 1.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 164,769 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,847,482.42. The trade was a 8.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 44,904 shares of company stock valued at $4,665,124 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.