On March 8, 2023 at 10:56:11 ET an unusually large $949.65K block of Call contracts in Micron Technology (MU) was sold, with a strike price of $60.00 / share, expiring in 100 days (on June 16, 2023). Fintel tracks all large options trades, and the premium spent on this trade was 3.27 sigmas above the mean, placing it in the 99.93 percentile of all recent large trades made in MU options.

This trade was first picked up on Fintel’s real time Options Flow tool, where all large block option trades are tracked.

Analyst Price Forecast Suggests 19.28% Upside

As of March 8, 2023, the average one-year price target for Micron Technology is $66.27. The forecasts range from a low of $45.45 to a high of $105.00. The average price target represents an increase of 19.28% from its latest reported closing price of $55.56.

What is the Fund Sentiment?

There are 2244 funds or institutions reporting positions in Micron Technology. This is a decrease of 34 owner(s) or 1.49% in the last quarter. Average portfolio weight of all funds dedicated to MU is 0.40%, a decrease of 14.40%. Total shares owned by institutions increased in the last three months by 3.15% to 1,047,240K shares. The put/call ratio of MU is 1.55, indicating a bearish outlook.

What are large shareholders doing?

Capital Research Global Investors holds 64,750K shares representing 5.93% ownership of the company. In it’s prior filing, the firm reported owning 47,470K shares, representing an increase of 26.69%. The firm increased its portfolio allocation in MU by 25.17% over the last quarter.

Sanders Capital holds 41,038K shares representing 3.76% ownership of the company. In it’s prior filing, the firm reported owning 42,131K shares, representing a decrease of 2.66%. The firm decreased its portfolio allocation in MU by 99.91% over the last quarter.

Primecap Management holds 39,740K shares representing 3.64% ownership of the company. In it’s prior filing, the firm reported owning 40,434K shares, representing a decrease of 1.75%. The firm decreased its portfolio allocation in MU by 99.91% over the last quarter.

VTSMX – Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares holds 33,045K shares representing 3.03% ownership of the company. In it’s prior filing, the firm reported owning 32,904K shares, representing an increase of 0.42%. The firm decreased its portfolio allocation in MU by 7.48% over the last quarter.

VFINX – Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares holds 25,132K shares representing 2.30% ownership of the company. In it’s prior filing, the firm reported owning 25,007K shares, representing an increase of 0.50%. The firm decreased its portfolio allocation in MU by 7.64% over the last quarter.

Micron Technology Declares $0.12 Dividend

On December 21, 2022 the company declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share ($0.46 annualized). Shareholders of record as of January 3, 2023 received the payment on January 19, 2023. Previously, the company paid $0.12 per share.

At the current share price of $55.56 / share, the stock’s dividend yield is 0.83%. Looking back five years and taking a sample every week, the average dividend yield has been 0.84%, the lowest has been 0.42%, and the highest has been 1.59%. The standard deviation of yields is 0.25 (n=237).

The current dividend yield is 0.05 standard deviations below the historical average.

Additionally, the company’s dividend payout ratio is 0.08. The payout ratio tells us how much of a company’s income is paid out in dividends. A payout ratio of one (1.0) means 100% of the company’s income is paid in a dividend. A payout ratio greater than one means the company is dipping into savings in order to maintain its dividend – not a healthy situation. Companies with few growth prospects are expected to pay out most of their income in dividends, which typically means a payout ratio between 0.5 and 1.0. Companies with good growth prospects are expected to retain some earnings in order to invest in those growth prospects, which translates to a payout ratio of zero to 0.5.

The company has not increased its dividend in the last three years.

Micron Technology Background Information
(This description is provided by the company.)

It is an industry leader in innovative memory and storage solutions. Through its global brands – Micron® and Crucial® – its broad portfolio of high-performance memory and storage technologies, including DRAM, NAND, 3D XPoint™ memory, and NOR, is transforming how the world uses information to enrich life for all. Backed by more than 40 years of technology leadership, its memory and storage solutions enable disruptive trends, including artificial intelligence, 5G, machine learning, and autonomous vehicles, in key market segments like mobile, data center, client, consumer, industrial, graphics, automotive, and networking.

This article originally appeared on Fintel