Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Acquires New Holdings in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management bought a new position in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 2,618 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock, valued at approximately $223,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MU. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC grew its stake in Micron Technology by 10.8% during the 3rd quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 5,921 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $396,000 after buying an additional 576 shares during the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co grew its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 38.6% during the third quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 2,240 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $152,000 after acquiring an additional 624 shares during the last quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd grew its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 5.2% during the third quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 36,756 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $2,501,000 after acquiring an additional 1,814 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. increased its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 443.8% during the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 870 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 710 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in shares of Micron Technology by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 487,933 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $33,194,000 after purchasing an additional 13,337 shares during the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on MU shares. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on Micron Technology from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $150.00 target price on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $140.00 price target on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Argus raised shares of Micron Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $140.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and twenty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $123.60.

Micron Technology Stock Performance

Micron Technology stock opened at $117.81 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $110.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $90.90. The stock has a market cap of $130.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -34.15 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 3.74 and a quick ratio of 2.40. Micron Technology, Inc. has a 1-year low of $59.79 and a 1-year high of $130.54.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 20th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by $0.69. The business had revenue of $5.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.35 billion. Micron Technology had a negative return on equity of 8.98% and a negative net margin of 20.57%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 57.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($2.03) EPS. On average, analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 0.24 EPS for the current year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 1st were given a dividend of $0.115 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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 Activity

In other Micron Technology news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.30, for a total transaction of $583,377.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 148,817 shares in the company, valued at $17,753,868.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Manish H. Bhatia sold 53,317 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.18, for a total transaction of $6,354,320.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 319,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,032,602.42. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.30, for a total value of $583,377.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 148,817 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,753,868.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 377,207 shares of company stock valued at $42,681,947. 0.32% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.