Wall Street Zen Upgrades Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) to Strong-Buy

Key Points

• Micron Technology has been upgraded by Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating, indicating increased confidence among analysts regarding the company's stock performance.
• Multiple analysts, including Susquehanna and Cantor Fitzgerald, have raised their price targets for Micron, with Susquehanna setting a new target of $200.00 and other firms expressing optimism about the company's prospects.
• Despite a recent stock uptick, insiders have sold a total of 156,308 shares in the last ninety days, which may indicate differing opinions on the stock's future among those within the company.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU - Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.

MU has been the subject of a number of other reports. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Arete Research raised shares of Micron Technology to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $182.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Micron Technology currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $184.77.

Micron Technology Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of MU stock traded up $0.44 on Friday, reaching $157.27. 24,020,674 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 26,111,426. The company has a current ratio of 2.52, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The business's 50 day moving average price is $128.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $108.02. The company has a market capitalization of $176.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.72, a PEG ratio of 0.40 and a beta of 1.47. Micron Technology has a twelve month low of $61.54 and a twelve month high of $170.45.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, June 25th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.34. The firm had revenue of $9.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.83 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 22.84% and a return on equity of 17.21%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.62 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Micron Technology will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.67, for a total transaction of $278,070.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 20,146 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,330,287.82. This represents a 10.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Manish H. Bhatia sold 80,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 275,067 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 156,308 shares of company stock valued at $19,804,967. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MU. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Micron Technology in the second quarter valued at about $1,980,700,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Micron Technology in the first quarter valued at about $369,191,000. Slate Path Capital LP purchased a new position in Micron Technology in the second quarter valued at about $317,751,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Micron Technology by 2.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 101,906,368 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $8,854,644,000 after buying an additional 2,049,163 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Micron Technology by 23.8% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 10,616,488 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $922,467,000 after buying an additional 2,038,641 shares in the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

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