The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Has $179.11 Million Holdings in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU - Free Report) by 2.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,726,755 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock after buying an additional 47,653 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned about 0.16% of Micron Technology worth $179,113,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MU. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its holdings in Micron Technology by 0.6% during the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 37,631,860 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $3,902,800,000 after purchasing an additional 206,499 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 30.6% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 10,564,198 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $1,109,769,000 after purchasing an additional 2,477,985 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Micron Technology by 1.0% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,721,126 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $697,048,000 after buying an additional 65,591 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 1.4% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,536,283 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $534,189,000 after buying an additional 61,127 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in Micron Technology by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 4,276,245 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $443,489,000 after acquiring an additional 295,452 shares during the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Micron Technology news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.00, for a total value of $552,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 135,830 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,348,790. The trade was a 3.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.32% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on MU shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $190.00 to $175.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. BNP Paribas downgraded Micron Technology from an "outperform" rating to an "underperform" rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $140.00 to $67.00 in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $140.00 target price on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $165.00 to $135.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Susquehanna cut their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $175.00 to $165.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Micron Technology presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $143.04.

Micron Technology Price Performance

Shares of Micron Technology stock traded down $3.60 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $98.20. 17,013,781 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,485,566. The company has a market cap of $108.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 144.41 and a beta of 1.18. Micron Technology, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $72.93 and a fifty-two week high of $157.54. The company has a current ratio of 2.64, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $103.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $111.80.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 25th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $7.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $7.65 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 3.10% and a return on equity of 1.58%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 93.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($1.21) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 8.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 7th were given a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 7th. Micron Technology's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 67.65%.

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.