Artemis Investment Management LLP Trims Holdings in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Artemis Investment Management LLP decreased its holdings in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU - Free Report) by 24.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 202,582 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock after selling 67,309 shares during the period. Artemis Investment Management LLP's holdings in Micron Technology were worth $17,602,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 31.8% in the fourth 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. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its holdings in Micron Technology by 43.0% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 14,178 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $1,193,000 after purchasing an additional 4,264 shares in the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. increased its position in Micron Technology by 167.0% during the 4th quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 45,758 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $3,851,000 after purchasing an additional 28,621 shares during the period. Duquesne Family Office LLC purchased a new position in shares of Micron Technology during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,412,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 74.6% during the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,646,936 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $222,779,000 after buying an additional 1,130,680 shares in the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MU. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Micron Technology from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a report on Thursday. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $120.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $144.67.

Micron Technology Stock Down 1.0%

MU stock opened at $126.00 on Friday. Micron Technology, Inc. has a one year low of $61.54 and a one year high of $137.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $140.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.70 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $97.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $94.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a current ratio of 3.13.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, June 25th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.34. Micron Technology had a return on equity of 13.88% and a net margin of 18.41%. The firm had revenue of $9.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.62 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 EPS for the current year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, July 7th will be issued a $0.115 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 7th. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.37%. Micron Technology's payout ratio is 11.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Scott J. Deboer sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total value of $2,200,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 186,353 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,498,830. This represents a 9.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $192,320.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 24,954 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,996,320. This trade represents a 8.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 72,404 shares of company stock valued at $8,509,167. Insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MU? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.