Micron Technology, Inc. $MU Shares Acquired by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Key Points

• Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Micron Technology by 26.3% in Q1, owning over 6.8 million shares valued at approximately $590 million.
• Several hedge funds, including Brighton Jones LLC and Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG, also raised their positions in Micron Technology during the previous quarter, highlighting increased institutional interest.
• Micron reported better-than-expected earnings for the last quarter, with an EPS of $1.91, surpassing the consensus estimate of $1.57, and revenue of $9.30 billion against an expectation of $8.83 billion.

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU - Free Report) by 26.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,800,052 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock after buying an additional 1,416,174 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned 0.61% of Micron Technology worth $590,807,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MU. Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of Micron Technology by 63.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 41,096,391 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $3,458,673,000 after purchasing an additional 15,993,036 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in shares of Micron Technology by 139.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 16,281,620 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $1,370,280,000 after purchasing an additional 9,489,579 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Micron Technology by 36.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,437,080 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $1,383,442,000 after purchasing an additional 4,375,232 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Micron Technology by 198.4% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,545,882 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $550,903,000 after purchasing an additional 4,352,225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Micron Technology during the first quarter valued at about $369,191,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.84% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MU has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $84.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Micron Technology from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, June 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $98.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $147.24.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 15,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.12, for a total value of $1,876,800.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 148,167 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,538,655.04. This represents a 9.19% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Manish H. Bhatia sold 80,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.16, for a total transaction of $9,852,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 275,067 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,877,251.72. This represents a 22.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 286,042 shares of company stock worth $34,679,277 over the last ninety days. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Micron Technology Price Performance

NASDAQ MU traded up $2.68 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $123.55. 12,186,706 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 23,060,834. Micron Technology, Inc. has a 52-week low of $61.54 and a 52-week high of $129.85. The company has a market capitalization of $138.27 billion, a PE ratio of 22.26 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.75 and a quick ratio of 1.89. The firm's 50-day moving average is $118.02 and its 200-day moving average is $99.17.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 25th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.34. Micron Technology had a net margin of 18.41% and a return on equity of 13.60%. The company had revenue of $9.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.83 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.62 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 7th were issued a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 7th. Micron Technology's payout ratio is presently 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.