Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Micron Technology Call Options (NASDAQ:MU)

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Investors purchased 496,092 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 144% compared to the typical volume of 202,975 call options.

Micron Technology Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MU opened at $107.50 on Friday. Micron Technology has a 52 week low of $63.83 and a 52 week high of $157.54. The company’s 50 day moving average is $97.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $114.60. The company has a market cap of $119.20 billion, a PE ratio of -76.02, a P/E/G ratio of 0.20 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a current ratio of 3.41, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 25th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $7.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.65 billion. Micron Technology had a negative net margin of 7.20% and a negative return on equity of 4.01%. The firm’s revenue was up 93.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($1.21) earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Micron Technology will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Micron Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.115 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, October 7th. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -32.39%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Micron Technology

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MU. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,666,590 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $11,396,024,000 after buying an additional 1,681,815 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Micron Technology by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 22,748,381 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $2,681,807,000 after buying an additional 1,400,154 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its position in Micron Technology by 15.1% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 18,303,506 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $2,157,800,000 after buying an additional 2,397,885 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Micron Technology by 22.2% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 18,243,633 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $2,150,743,000 after buying an additional 3,315,988 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in Micron Technology by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,086,213 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,063,580,000 after buying an additional 519,641 shares during the period. 80.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on MU shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Micron Technology from $100.00 to $114.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Micron Technology from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th. KeyCorp cut their price objective on Micron Technology from $165.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on shares of Micron Technology from $150.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $190.00 to $175.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and twenty-five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $144.38.

Micron Technology Company 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.