Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Shares Up 2.1% After Dividend Announcement

Shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) traded up 2.1% on Monday after the company announced a dividend. The company traded as high as $98.42 and last traded at $96.67. 12,123,322 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 46% from the average session volume of 22,466,174 shares. The stock had previously closed at $94.72.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.03%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $130.00 price target on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Friday. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $150.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Micron Technology currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $132.63.

Micron Technology Stock Up 2.1 %

The company has a market cap of $107.71 billion, a PE ratio of 27.86 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $96.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $98.34. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.13. Micron Technology had a return on equity of 8.32% and a net margin of 13.34%. The business had revenue of $8.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.93 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.42 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total transaction of $223,403.72. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 27,358 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,542,378.94. This trade represents a 8.08 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Micron Technology

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Harmony Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Micron Technology by 75.6% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. grew 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 acquiring an additional 29,000 shares in the last quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Micron Technology by 31.8% in the 4th quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 36,378 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $3,062,000 after acquiring an additional 8,780 shares in the last quarter. Stablepoint Partners LLC acquired a new position in Micron Technology in the 4th quarter valued at about $569,000. Finally, State Street Corp grew its position in Micron Technology by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 48,226,710 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $5,001,592,000 after acquiring an additional 1,434,568 shares in the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.