Gateway Investment Advisers LLC Boosts Holdings in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU - Free Report) by 200.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 192,308 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock after buying an additional 128,256 shares during the period. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC's holdings in Micron Technology were worth $16,710,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Micron Technology by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,857,205 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $8,403,982,000 after acquiring an additional 888,087 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 34.6% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,672,462 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $4,012,114,000 after purchasing an additional 12,249,341 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Micron Technology by 63.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 41,096,391 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $3,458,673,000 after buying an additional 15,993,036 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Micron Technology by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,449,827 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $2,052,973,000 after buying an additional 726,282 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Micron Technology during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,470,875,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.84% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on MU shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Micron Technology from $112.00 to $98.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Wedbush reaffirmed an "underperform" rating on shares of Micron Technology in a report on Monday, April 28th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $124.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Micron Technology from $130.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, KGI Securities raised shares of Micron Technology to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $128.20.

Micron Technology Stock Up 2.1%

Shares of Micron Technology stock opened at $108.56 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $83.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $92.17. The company has a market cap of $121.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.29 and a beta of 1.28. Micron Technology, Inc. has a 1 year low of $61.54 and a 1 year high of $157.54. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.13. Micron Technology had a return on equity of 8.32% and a net margin of 13.34%. The company had revenue of $8.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.42 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 38.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect 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, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. Micron Technology's payout ratio is 11.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Micron Technology

In other news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.18, for a total transaction of $1,442,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 164,769 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,847,482.42. This represents a 8.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale 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 stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total value of $192,320.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 24,954 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,996,320. This trade represents a 8.79% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

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.

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