Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Stock Price Down 1.6% After Analyst Downgrade

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU - Get Free Report) fell 1.6% during trading on Tuesday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $98.00 to $91.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Micron Technology traded as low as $88.73 and last traded at $89.63. 11,800,899 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 54% from the average session volume of 25,701,277 shares. The stock had previously closed at $91.11.

MU has been the topic of several other research reports. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $150.00 to $130.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group cut their price target on Micron Technology from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on 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, Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $140.00 price objective on shares of Micron Technology in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twenty-three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Micron Technology currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $134.96.

Insider Transactions at Micron Technology

In related news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of Micron Technology stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.21, for a total transaction of $416,676.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 181,223 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,442,011.83. This trade represents a 2.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MU. Ascent Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 3,306 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $435,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in Micron Technology by 12.4% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 149,606 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $19,678,000 after purchasing an additional 16,463 shares during the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC purchased a new stake in Micron Technology in the second quarter worth approximately $49,000. Silver Lake Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Micron Technology in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $512,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in Micron Technology by 79.4% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 95,088 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $12,507,000 after buying an additional 42,080 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.84% of the company's stock.

Micron Technology Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $98.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.43 and a beta of 1.18. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $98.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $100.80.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.19. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The company had revenue of $8.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.95) earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 30th were given a $0.115 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 30th. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Micron Technology's payout ratio is currently 13.26%.

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.

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