Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) Stock Price Up 3.1% - Should You Buy?

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU - Get Free Report)'s stock price rose 3.1% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $96.34 and last traded at $96.24. Approximately 4,761,544 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 23,444,649 shares. The stock had previously closed at $93.37.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MU has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada set a $125.00 price objective on shares of Micron Technology in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. China Renaissance lowered shares of Micron Technology from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $84.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $250.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Micron Technology from $130.00 to $92.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $126.48.

Micron Technology Trading Down 0.7%

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $82.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $92.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $107.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.69 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 2.72.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $8.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.93 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. Micron Technology's revenue for the quarter was up 38.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 EPS for the current year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.115 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. Micron Technology's payout ratio is 11.03%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Micron Technology news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total transaction of $223,403.72. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 27,358 shares in the company, valued at $2,542,378.94. This represents a 8.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 15,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at approximately $15,847,482.42. The trade was a 8.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 19,808 shares of company stock worth $1,858,424 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Micron Technology

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Micron Technology by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 101,906,368 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $8,854,644,000 after buying an additional 2,049,163 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in Micron Technology by 34.6% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,672,462 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $4,012,114,000 after buying an additional 12,249,341 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Micron Technology by 63.7% during 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position 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 during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Micron Technology during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,470,875,000. 80.84% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.