Vanguard Capital Wealth Advisors Cuts Holdings in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Vanguard Capital Wealth Advisors decreased its position in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 39.7% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,800 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after selling 2,500 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Capital Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Micron Technology were worth $330,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MU. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Micron Technology during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,470,875,000. Capital World Investors grew its position in Micron Technology by 63.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 41,096,391 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $3,458,673,000 after acquiring an additional 15,993,036 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in Micron Technology by 34.6% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,672,462 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $4,012,114,000 after acquiring an additional 12,249,341 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in Micron Technology by 139.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 16,281,620 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,370,280,000 after acquiring an additional 9,489,579 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its position in Micron Technology by 36.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,437,080 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,383,442,000 after acquiring an additional 4,375,232 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.84% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on MU shares. Wall Street Zen lowered Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Micron Technology from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Micron Technology from $112.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price target on Micron Technology from $250.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $128.20.

Micron Technology Stock Performance

Micron Technology stock opened at $108.56 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $83.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $92.17. 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, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $61.54 and a fifty-two week high of $157.54. The company has a market capitalization of $121.32 billion, a PE ratio of 31.29 and a beta of 1.28.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.13. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. The firm had revenue of $8.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.42 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 38.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Micron Technology Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.115 per share. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 11.03%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total value of $192,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 24,954 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,996,320. The trade was a 8.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 15,000 shares of the business’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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 164,769 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,847,482.42. This trade represents a 8.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.30% 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.