Easterly Investment Partners LLC Cuts Position in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Easterly Investment Partners LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 75.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,225 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after selling 12,986 shares during the quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $356,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Harmony Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 75.6% during the 3rd quarter. Harmony Asset Management LLC now owns 11,889 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,233,000 after buying an additional 5,120 shares during the period. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 31.8% during the fourth quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 36,378 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $3,062,000 after purchasing an additional 8,780 shares during the period. Stablepoint Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Micron Technology during the fourth quarter worth $569,000. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 48,226,710 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $5,001,592,000 after purchasing an additional 1,434,568 shares during the period. Finally, Main Management ETF Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Micron Technology during the 3rd quarter valued at $2,414,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on MU. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $125.00 price target on shares of Micron Technology in a report on Monday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Micron Technology from $91.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their target price on Micron Technology from $250.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $125.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $129.96.

Micron Technology Price Performance

Shares of MU opened at $91.16 on Friday. Micron Technology, Inc. has a 12 month low of $83.54 and a 12 month high of $157.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $96.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $98.36. The company has a market cap of $101.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.27 and a beta of 1.23.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $8.05 billion during 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 38.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.115 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.03%.

Insider Transactions at Micron Technology

In other Micron Technology news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the business’s 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 approximately $2,542,378.94. The trade was a 8.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 25th. The stock was 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 directly owns 164,769 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,847,482.42. This represents a 8.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.