Bailard Inc. Raises Stock Position in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Bailard Inc. lifted its position in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 13.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 54,558 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after buying an additional 6,508 shares during the period. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $4,656,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sandy Spring Bank boosted its position in shares of Micron Technology by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Sandy Spring Bank now owns 1,305 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $111,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. HMS Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Micron Technology by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. HMS Capital Management LLC now owns 19,842 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,693,000 after buying an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. Huntington National Bank increased its stake 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 worth $180,000 after buying an additional 149 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake 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 worth $437,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the period. Finally, Homestead Advisers Corp increased its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 12.5% during the third quarter. Homestead Advisers Corp now owns 1,372 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $93,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Micron Technology news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.30, for a total transaction of $583,377.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 148,817 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,753,868.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $17,753,868.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total transaction of $5,850,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 728,557 shares in the company, valued at approximately $94,712,410. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 261,890 shares of company stock valued at $28,955,157 in the last 90 days. 0.32% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on MU shares. Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $78.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $140.00 target price on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Monday, March 18th. One research 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $122.20.

Micron Technology Price Performance

Shares of Micron Technology stock traded up $0.71 during trading on Thursday, hitting $112.49. The stock had a trading volume of 11,623,888 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,474,877. Micron Technology, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $59.34 and a fifty-two week high of $130.54. The business has a fifty day moving average of $104.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $87.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 3.74 and a quick ratio of 2.40. The firm has a market cap of $124.57 billion, a P/E ratio of -32.14 and a beta of 1.27.

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

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 1st were issued a dividend of $0.115 per share. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 28th. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio is currently -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.