Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp Lowers Holdings in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp lowered its position in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 8.4% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 568,148 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after selling 52,212 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp’s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $67,013,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MU. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 94,984,775 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $8,106,001,000 after acquiring an additional 755,588 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC increased its position in Micron Technology by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 22,583,348 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,927,263,000 after purchasing an additional 503,923 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,905,621 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,357,392,000 after buying an additional 363,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Micron Technology in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $769,372,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 28.9% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 7,566,572 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $892,023,000 after buying an additional 1,695,876 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Micron Technology

In related news, EVP Sumit Sadana sold 13,239 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.77, for a total value of $1,572,396.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 260,857 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,981,985.89. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, EVP Sumit Sadana sold 13,239 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.77, for a total value of $1,572,396.03. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 260,857 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,981,985.89. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Michael W. Bokan sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.55, for a total transaction of $1,733,250.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 153,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,723,867.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 243,730 shares of company stock valued at $30,218,549. Corporate insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on MU shares. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Micron Technology from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, June 24th. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, June 21st. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $150.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 24th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $144.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Micron Technology from $135.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $158.72.

Micron Technology Stock Down 2.7 %

NASDAQ MU traded down $3.19 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $114.26. The company had a trading volume of 18,038,924 shares, compared to its average volume of 29,122,340. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $132.45 and its 200 day moving average is $111.06. The company has a market capitalization of $126.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -80.46 and a beta of 1.18. Micron Technology, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $61.75 and a fifty-two week high of $157.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 3.41 and a quick ratio of 2.16.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $6.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.67 billion. Micron Technology had a negative return on equity of 4.01% and a negative net margin of 7.20%. During the same period last year, the business posted ($1.57) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 81.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 0.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 8th will be paid a $0.115 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 8th. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -32.39%.

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.