Micron Technology Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:MU)

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders bought 268,132 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 31% compared to the typical daily volume of 204,537 call options.

Micron Technology Trading Up 3.4 %

Shares of Micron Technology stock opened at $94.34 on Thursday. Micron Technology has a 12-month low of $83.54 and a 12-month high of $157.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $105.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.19 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $95.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $98.60. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $8.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.71 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 13.34% and a return on equity of 8.32%. Micron Technology’s quarterly revenue was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.95) earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Micron Technology will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 30th were issued a dividend of $0.115 per share. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 30th. Micron Technology’s payout ratio is presently 13.26%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of Micron Technology stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.21, for a total value of $416,676.90. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 181,223 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,442,011.83. The trade was a 2.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Mary Pat Mccarthy sold 2,404 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.93, for a total transaction of $223,403.72. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 27,358 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,542,378.94. This represents a 8.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Micron Technology

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Micron Technology by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,857,205 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $8,403,982,000 after purchasing an additional 888,087 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 48,226,710 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $5,001,592,000 after buying an additional 1,434,568 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Micron Technology by 34.6% during 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 during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 63.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 41,096,391 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $3,458,673,000 after acquiring an additional 15,993,036 shares during the period. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its holdings in Micron Technology by 0.6% in the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 37,631,860 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $3,902,800,000 after acquiring an additional 206,499 shares during the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MU. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Micron Technology from $150.00 to $130.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on Micron Technology from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $145.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Micron Technology from $150.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Bank of America lowered shares of Micron Technology from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $125.00 to $110.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $134.96.

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.