Morgan Stanley Lowers Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Price Target to $98.00

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU - Free Report) had its target price cut by Morgan Stanley from $114.00 to $98.00 in a report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the semiconductor manufacturer's stock.

Several other research firms also recently commented on MU. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Micron Technology in a report on Wednesday. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Micron Technology from $180.00 to $145.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, China Renaissance started coverage on Micron Technology in a research report on Monday, October 28th. They set a "buy" rating and a $148.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twenty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $133.56.

Micron Technology Stock Down 16.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MU traded down $16.81 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $87.09. The stock had a trading volume of 91,219,273 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,904,396. The company has a market cap of $97.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 128.08 and a beta of 1.16. Micron Technology has a 12 month low of $78.63 and a 12 month high of $157.54. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $103.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $109.09. The company has a quick ratio of 1.68, a current ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $8.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.71 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 84.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.95) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Micron Technology will post 8.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 30th will be given a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 30th. Micron Technology's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 13.26%.

Insider Transactions at Micron Technology

In other news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.00, for a total transaction of $552,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 135,830 shares in the company, valued at $15,348,790. This trade represents a 3.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Micron Technology

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Harmony Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Micron Technology by 75.6% in the third quarter. Harmony Asset Management LLC now owns 11,889 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $1,233,000 after purchasing an additional 5,120 shares during the period. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. raised its position in Micron Technology by 241.7% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. now owns 41,000 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $4,252,000 after buying an additional 29,000 shares during the last quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in Micron Technology by 26.4% during the 3rd quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC now owns 195,115 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $20,236,000 after acquiring an additional 40,802 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Micron Technology by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 48,226,710 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $5,001,592,000 after acquiring an additional 1,434,568 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Global X Japan Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 23.1% in the 3rd quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 51,832 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $5,375,000 after acquiring an additional 9,735 shares in 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.