Westpac Banking Corp Cuts Stake in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Westpac Banking Corp lessened its holdings in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 40.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,050 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after selling 6,044 shares during the quarter. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $762,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Micron Technology in the fourth quarter worth about $1,470,875,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Micron Technology by 339.6% in the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,255,000 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $189,781,000 after purchasing an additional 1,742,073 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Micron Technology in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $135,865,000. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 254.4% during the third quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 1,859,416 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $192,840,000 after purchasing an additional 1,334,690 shares during the period. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 24.3% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 4,573,200 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $474,287,000 after purchasing an additional 893,700 shares during the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of Micron Technology stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total value of $223,403.72. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 27,358 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,542,378.94. The trade was a 8.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.18, for a total value 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 corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on MU shares. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $150.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. KGI Securities raised Micron Technology to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $125.00 price target on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Micron Technology from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $129.76.

Micron Technology Stock Down 12.9 %

Shares of Micron Technology stock opened at $64.72 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $93.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $98.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $72.33 billion, a PE ratio of 18.65 and a beta of 1.23. Micron Technology, Inc. has a 52-week low of $63.86 and a 52-week high of $157.54. 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) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.13. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The company had revenue of $8.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.115 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.03%.

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.