Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Raised to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Saturday.

MU has been the subject of several other research reports. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 9th. China Renaissance downgraded shares of Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $84.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. UBS Group upped their target price on Micron Technology from $92.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 5th. KGI Securities upgraded shares of Micron Technology to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $130.00 target price on shares of Micron Technology in a report on Friday, March 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $129.00.

Micron Technology Stock Up 3.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:MU opened at $119.84 on Friday. Micron Technology has a 12 month low of $61.54 and a 12 month high of $157.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $89.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $92.68. The firm has a market cap of $133.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.54 and a beta of 1.28.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.13. Micron Technology had a return on equity of 8.32% and a net margin of 13.34%. The business had revenue of $8.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 38.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Micron Technology will post 6.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.115 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.38%. Micron Technology’s payout ratio is 11.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Micron Technology

In other news, EVP Scott J. Deboer sold 20,000 shares of Micron Technology stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total transaction of $2,200,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 186,353 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,498,830. The trade was a 9.69% 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 Micron Technology 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 $15,847,482.42. The trade was a 8.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 44,904 shares of company stock valued at $4,665,124. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MU. Sunbeam Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Micron Technology in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Beacon Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 114.9% in the fourth quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 374 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Micron Technology in the 1st quarter valued at $33,000. Midwest Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Micron Technology in the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Roxbury Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Micron Technology by 306.1% during the first quarter. Roxbury Financial LLC now owns 398 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.84% 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.