Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Cuts Position in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. cut its stake in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 10.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 297,821 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after selling 33,660 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $25,416,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Micron Technology by 411.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 15,274,070 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $763,398,000 after buying an additional 12,286,893 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Micron Technology during the 4th quarter worth about $581,559,000. FMR LLC lifted its position in Micron Technology by 47.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,899,184 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,489,801,000 after acquiring an additional 7,089,790 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in Micron Technology by 59.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 14,185,790 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $709,006,000 after acquiring an additional 5,274,984 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Micron Technology by 43.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,383,628 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,182,608,000 after acquiring an additional 5,257,201 shares during the period. 80.84% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on MU shares. UBS Group lifted their price target on Micron Technology from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. StockNews.com raised Micron Technology from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Micron Technology from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 18th. Fox Advisors upgraded Micron Technology from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Argus upgraded Micron Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $140.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and twenty-five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $118.69.

Micron Technology Price Performance

NASDAQ:MU opened at $119.25 on Thursday. Micron Technology, Inc. has a one year low of $56.01 and a one year high of $122.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 2.40 and a current ratio of 3.74. The stock has a market cap of $132.05 billion, a PE ratio of -34.57 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $90.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $80.38.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by $0.69. The company had revenue of $5.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.35 billion. Micron Technology had a negative return on equity of 8.98% and a negative net margin of 20.57%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 57.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($2.03) earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 0.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 1st will be given a dividend of $0.115 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 28th. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.39%. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio is currently -13.33%.

Insider Transactions at Micron Technology

In other news, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $5,400,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 743,557 shares in the company, valued at $89,226,840. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders sold a total of 264,000 shares of company stock worth $26,368,640 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

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.