Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. Reduces Stock Position in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. cut its stake in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 4.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,358 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after selling 435 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $872,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. UG Investment Advisers Ltd. grew its position in shares of Micron Technology by 25.3% during the 4th quarter. UG Investment Advisers Ltd. now owns 609,137 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $51,265,000 after purchasing an additional 122,822 shares in the last quarter. Deane Retirement Strategies Inc. purchased a new position in Micron Technology during the fourth quarter worth about $2,704,000. Orca Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Micron Technology in the 4th quarter worth about $703,000. Kennedy Investment Group raised its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 13.2% in the 4th quarter. Kennedy Investment Group now owns 19,154 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,612,000 after acquiring an additional 2,227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Effects LLC boosted its position in shares of Micron Technology by 35.1% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Effects LLC now owns 19,396 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,632,000 after acquiring an additional 5,041 shares during the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.21, for a total value of $416,676.90. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 181,223 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,442,011.83. This represents a 2.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Micron Technology from $98.00 to $91.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Micron Technology from $145.00 to $128.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price objective on Micron Technology from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twenty-three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Micron Technology currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $134.96.

Micron Technology Stock Performance

Micron Technology stock opened at $89.04 on Thursday. Micron Technology, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $79.15 and a fifty-two week high of $157.54. The stock has a market cap of $99.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.66 and a beta of 1.18. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $98.04 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $100.48. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $8.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.71 billion. Micron Technology had a return on equity of 8.32% and a net margin of 13.34%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 84.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.95) earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 30th were paid a dividend of $0.115 per share. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 30th. 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.