Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.12

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 19th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 30th will be given a dividend of 0.115 per share by the semiconductor manufacturer on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 30th.

Micron Technology has a dividend payout ratio of 5.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Micron Technology to earn $12.58 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.46 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 3.7%.

Micron Technology Stock Performance

MU stock traded down $16.81 during trading on Thursday, reaching $87.09. The company had a trading volume of 87,958,007 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,859,287. The company has a market cap of $97.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 128.08 and a beta of 1.16. Micron Technology has a twelve month low of $78.63 and a twelve month high of $157.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a current ratio of 2.64. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $103.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $109.09.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.19. Micron Technology had a return on equity of 1.58% and a net margin of 3.10%. The firm had revenue of $8.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.95) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Micron Technology will post 8.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Susquehanna lowered their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $175.00 to $165.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 26th. China Renaissance started coverage on Micron Technology in a report on Monday, October 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $148.00 price target for the company. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective on shares of Micron Technology in a research report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Micron Technology from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Micron Technology from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twenty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Micron Technology currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $133.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Micron Technology news, EVP April S. Arnzen sold 4,890 shares of Micron Technology stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.00, for a total transaction of $552,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 135,830 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,348,790. The trade was a 3.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.