Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Boosts Stake in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 206,934 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,498 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $17,659,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sandy Spring Bank lifted its holdings in Micron Technology by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Sandy Spring Bank now owns 1,305 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $111,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the period. HMS Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. HMS Capital Management LLC now owns 19,842 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,693,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank boosted its position in shares of Micron Technology by 6.0% during the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 2,652 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $180,000 after purchasing an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in shares of Micron Technology by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 5,125 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $437,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Homestead Advisers Corp grew its stake in Micron Technology by 12.5% in the third quarter. Homestead Advisers Corp now owns 1,372 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $93,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the period. 80.84% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MU. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $140.00 target price on shares of Micron Technology in a report on Friday, April 12th. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 19th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and issued a $150.00 price target on shares of Micron Technology in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on Micron Technology from $105.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and twenty-four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Micron Technology currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $122.20.

Insider Activity at Micron Technology

In other news, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.41, for a total value of $611,870.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 642,251 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,139,159.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra sold 7,000 shares of Micron Technology stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.41, for a total transaction of $611,870.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 642,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,139,159.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.30, for a total value of $583,377.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 148,817 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,753,868.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 313,890 shares of company stock worth $33,617,027. 0.32% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Micron Technology Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of MU opened at $115.55 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $101.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $86.22. The company has a current ratio of 3.74, a quick ratio of 2.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Micron Technology, Inc. has a 1-year low of $58.03 and a 1-year high of $130.54.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by $0.69. The company had revenue of $5.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.35 billion. Micron Technology had a negative return on equity of 8.98% and a negative net margin of 20.57%. Micron Technology’s revenue for the quarter was up 57.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($2.03) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 0.24 EPS for the current year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 16th. Investors of record on Monday, April 1st were issued a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 28th. Micron Technology’s payout ratio is -13.33%.

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.