Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Buys 30,773 Shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU - Free Report) by 8.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 382,512 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock after acquiring an additional 30,773 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.'s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $33,236,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MU. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 18.3% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,318 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $532,000 after buying an additional 976 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG grew its stake in Micron Technology by 19.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 85,722 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $7,214,000 after acquiring an additional 13,985 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 74.7% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,056 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $341,000 after acquiring an additional 1,734 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 734,517 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $61,817,000 after acquiring an additional 35,163 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modern Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Micron Technology during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,587,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.84% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on MU shares. Arete Research raised Micron Technology to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. China Renaissance downgraded shares of Micron Technology from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $84.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Raymond James Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $120.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $146.44.

Micron Technology Stock Performance

Shares of MU stock traded up $1.90 on Thursday, reaching $111.73. The stock had a trading volume of 20,223,773 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,822,728. The company has a quick ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 2.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm's 50-day moving average is $112.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $97.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $125.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.13 and a beta of 1.35. Micron Technology, Inc. has a 12 month low of $61.54 and a 12 month high of $129.85.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, June 25th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $9.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.83 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 18.41% and a return on equity of 13.60%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.62 EPS. On average, research 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, July 22nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 7th were issued a $0.115 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 7th. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Micron Technology's payout ratio is 8.29%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Micron Technology news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $121.28, for a total value of $291,557.12. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 22,550 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,734,864. This represents a 9.63% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Sumit Sadana sold 92,638 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.49, for a total transaction of $11,625,142.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 201,326 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Insiders sold 288,446 shares of company stock worth $34,871,597 in the last 90 days. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Micron Technology 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.