Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG Acquires 13,985 Shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG boosted its position in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 19.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 85,722 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,985 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG’s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $7,214,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Harmony Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 5,120 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. raised its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 241.7% in the third quarter. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. now owns 41,000 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $4,252,000 after acquiring an additional 29,000 shares during the last quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 26.4% in the third quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC now owns 195,115 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $20,236,000 after acquiring an additional 40,802 shares during the last quarter. Stablepoint Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Micron Technology in the fourth quarter worth about $569,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 3.1% in the third 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. 80.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $175.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $98.00 to $91.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $180.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twenty-three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $134.96.

Micron Technology Price Performance

Shares of MU opened at $99.52 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $110.88 billion, a PE ratio of 28.68 and a beta of 1.18. The company’s 50-day moving average is $96.13 and its 200-day moving average is $98.70. Micron Technology, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $79.15 and a fifty-two week high of $157.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $8.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.71 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The company’s revenue 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. Equities analysts forecast that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.29 EPS for the current year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 30th were given a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 30th. Micron Technology’s payout ratio is presently 13.26%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.21, for a total value of $416,676.90. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 181,223 shares in the company, 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. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Micron Technology Profile

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.