Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Increases Holdings in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 772,131 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,398 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $80,078,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Harmony Asset Management LLC raised its position in Micron Technology by 75.6% in the 3rd quarter. Harmony Asset Management LLC now owns 11,889 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,233,000 after purchasing an additional 5,120 shares during the period. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. raised its position in Micron Technology by 241.7% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. now owns 41,000 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $4,252,000 after purchasing an additional 29,000 shares during the period. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC raised its position in Micron Technology by 26.4% in the 3rd quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC now owns 195,115 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $20,236,000 after purchasing an additional 40,802 shares during the period. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. raised its position in Micron Technology by 23.1% in the 3rd quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 51,832 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $5,375,000 after purchasing an additional 9,735 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Micron Technology by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,721,126 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $697,048,000 after purchasing an additional 65,591 shares during the period. 80.84% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Micron Technology Price Performance

Shares of MU opened at $103.20 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $114.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 151.77 and a beta of 1.16. Micron Technology, Inc. has a twelve month low of $72.93 and a twelve month high of $157.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.68, a current ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a 50 day moving average of $103.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $110.88.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, September 25th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $7.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.65 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 3.10% and a return on equity of 1.58%. Micron Technology’s revenue was up 93.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($1.21) earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 8.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 7th were issued a $0.115 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 7th. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio is currently 67.65%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Micron Technology news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.00, for a total value of $552,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 135,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,348,790. This trade represents a 3.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MU. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $153.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $175.00 to $150.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $143.04.

Micron Technology 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.