Investors Buy High Volume of Call Options on Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU)

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 268,132 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 31% compared to the average daily volume of 204,537 call options.

Insider Transactions at Micron Technology

In other news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.21, for a total value of $416,676.90. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 181,223 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,442,011.83. The trade was a 2.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Micron Technology

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,857,205 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $8,403,982,000 after purchasing an additional 888,087 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position 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 buying an additional 1,434,568 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Micron Technology by 34.6% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,672,462 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $4,012,114,000 after buying an additional 12,249,341 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Micron Technology by 63.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 41,096,391 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $3,458,673,000 after buying an additional 15,993,036 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its position in Micron Technology by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 37,631,860 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $3,902,800,000 after buying an additional 206,499 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Micron Technology Stock Performance

Micron Technology stock traded up $0.66 on Tuesday, hitting $91.20. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 23,587,819 shares, compared to its average volume of 22,530,475. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $95.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $98.63. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. Micron Technology has a one year low of $83.54 and a one year high of $157.54. The firm has a market cap of $101.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.28 and a beta of 1.18.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last posted its 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. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The business had revenue of $8.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.95) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Micron Technology will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 30th were issued a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 30th. Micron Technology’s payout ratio is 13.26%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on MU shares. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $150.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective on shares of Micron Technology in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $145.00 to $128.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $134.96.

Micron Technology Company 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.