Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Shares Gap Up to $114.70

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) gapped up before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $114.70, but opened at $119.78. Micron Technology shares last traded at $120.61, with a volume of 7,018,084 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MU. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Micron Technology from $120.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $140.00 price objective on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Argus upgraded Micron Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $140.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and twenty-five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $123.60.

Micron Technology Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $132.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -34.65 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 3.74, a quick ratio of 2.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $108.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $89.96.

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

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 16th. Investors of record on Monday, April 1st were issued a $0.115 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 28th. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.38%. Micron Technology’s payout ratio is -13.33%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Micron Technology news, EVP Scott J. Deboer sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.31, for a total transaction of $4,412,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 158,617 shares in the company, valued at $17,497,041.27. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Scott J. Deboer sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.31, for a total value of $4,412,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 158,617 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,497,041.27. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Michael W. Bokan sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.55, for a total value of $1,733,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 153,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,723,867.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 323,890 shares of company stock valued at $36,079,267 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MU. Tidemark LLC acquired a new position in Micron Technology in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. DecisionPoint Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Micron Technology during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Pingora Partners LLC bought a new position in Micron Technology during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in Micron Technology in the third quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Micron Technology during the third quarter valued at $28,000. 80.84% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.