Aberdeen Group plc Grows Position in Micron Technology, Inc. $MU

Key Points

• Aberdeen Group plc significantly increased its stake in Micron Technology by 91.0%, acquiring an additional 419,768 shares and bringing their total holdings to 880,889 shares valued at approximately $75 million.
• Several analysts have raised their price targets for Micron Technology, with Barclays increasing it to $140.00 and JPMorgan Chase setting it at $185.00, indicating a generally positive outlook for the company.
• Micron Technology recently reported a strong earnings performance, with earnings per share of $1.91, exceeding estimates, alongside a total revenue of $9.30 billion for the quarter.

Aberdeen Group plc increased its holdings in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU - Free Report) by 91.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 880,889 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock after purchasing an additional 419,768 shares during the quarter. Aberdeen Group plc owned 0.08% of Micron Technology worth $75,056,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MU. Liontrust Investment Partners LLP lifted its position in Micron Technology by 85.7% in the first quarter. Liontrust Investment Partners LLP now owns 253,036 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $21,986,000 after buying an additional 116,775 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Micron Technology by 26.3% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,800,052 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $590,807,000 after buying an additional 1,416,174 shares during the last quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in Micron Technology in the first quarter valued at about $629,000. Seaview Investment Managers LLC lifted its position in Micron Technology by 1.1% in the first quarter. Seaview Investment Managers LLC now owns 107,147 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $9,310,000 after buying an additional 1,133 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trivium Point Advisory LLC lifted its position in Micron Technology by 14.1% in the first quarter. Trivium Point Advisory LLC now owns 27,949 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $2,428,000 after buying an additional 3,444 shares during the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $121.28, for a total value of $291,557.12. Following the sale, the director directly owned 22,550 shares in the company, valued at $2,734,864. This represents a 9.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Sumit Sadana sold 92,638 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.49, for a total value of $11,625,142.62. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 201,326 shares in the company, valued at $25,264,399.74. This represents a 31.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 286,042 shares of company stock valued at $34,679,277. Insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MU has been the subject of several research reports. Wall Street Zen raised Micron Technology from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, June 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Micron Technology in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $150.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Micron Technology from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Micron Technology in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $130.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Arete Research upgraded Micron Technology to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $147.24.

Micron Technology Price Performance

MU stock traded up $2.68 on Monday, reaching $123.55. 12,191,368 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 23,061,104. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $118.02 and a 200-day moving average of $99.17. Micron Technology, Inc. has a twelve month low of $61.54 and a twelve month high of $129.85. The firm has a market cap of $138.27 billion, a PE ratio of 22.26 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a quick ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 2.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, June 25th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $9.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.83 billion. Micron Technology had a return on equity of 13.60% and a net margin of 18.41%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.62 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 22nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 7th were given a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 7th. Micron Technology's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.29%.

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.