Legal & General Group Plc Trims Position in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its stake in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 29.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,750,398 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after selling 2,858,441 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $568,113,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MU. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,207,903 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $859,097,000 after acquiring an additional 175,187 shares in the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Micron Technology by 21.5% in the 4th quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 8,130 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $684,000 after purchasing an additional 1,438 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Micron Technology by 34.6% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,672,462 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $4,012,114,000 after purchasing an additional 12,249,341 shares in the last quarter. Himension Capital Singapore PTE. LTD. increased its position in Micron Technology by 41.0% during the 4th quarter. Himension Capital Singapore PTE. LTD. now owns 70,595 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $5,941,000 after purchasing an additional 20,524 shares during the period. Finally, Generali Powszechne Towarzystwo Emerytalne purchased a new position in shares of Micron Technology during the 4th quarter worth approximately $7,574,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Micron Technology Price Performance

MU stock opened at $68.37 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $76.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.70 and a beta of 1.18. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $92.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $98.09. Micron Technology, Inc. has a 52-week low of $61.54 and a 52-week high of $157.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $8.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.93 billion. Micron Technology had a return on equity of 8.32% and a net margin of 13.34%. The firm’s revenue was up 38.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 EPS for the current year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.115 per share. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Micron Technology

In other Micron Technology news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total transaction of $223,403.72. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 27,358 shares in the company, valued at $2,542,378.94. The trade was a 8.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 164,769 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,847,482.42. This represents a 8.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MU. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Micron Technology from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. China Renaissance cut shares of Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $84.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $145.00 to $128.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $129.76.

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.