Ballentine Partners LLC Raises Position in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Ballentine Partners LLC increased its position in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX - Free Report) by 913.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 47,702 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after purchasing an additional 42,997 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC's holdings in Lam Research were worth $3,446,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LRCX. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in Lam Research by 1,394.7% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 16,081,071 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $13,123,440,000 after acquiring an additional 15,005,178 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in Lam Research during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $175,652,000. Guinness Asset Management LTD boosted its holdings in Lam Research by 1,129.8% in the fourth quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 482,156 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $34,825,000 after purchasing an additional 442,949 shares during the last quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. raised its stake in Lam Research by 886.9% during the 4th quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 349,792 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $25,266,000 after buying an additional 314,349 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 950.4% during the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 278,979 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $20,151,000 after buying an additional 252,420 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.61% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on LRCX shares. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Lam Research in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Lam Research from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on Lam Research from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 29th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Lam Research from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Lam Research to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $95.77.

Lam Research Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LRCX traded up $1.20 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $81.50. The company's stock had a trading volume of 10,958,997 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,055,914. The firm has a market cap of $104.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.45. The firm's 50 day moving average is $74.81 and its 200-day moving average is $80.43. Lam Research Co. has a fifty-two week low of $68.87 and a fifty-two week high of $113.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.74.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The semiconductor company reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $4.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.06 billion. Lam Research had a return on equity of 50.60% and a net margin of 26.02%. The company's revenue was up 19.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $6.85 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Lam Research Co. will post 3.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. Lam Research's payout ratio is currently 29.74%.

Lam Research Company Profile

Lam Research Corporation designs, manufactures, markets, refurbishes, and services semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. The company offers ALTUS systems to deposit conformal films for tungsten metallization applications; SABRE electrochemical deposition products for copper interconnect transition that offers copper damascene manufacturing; SOLA ultraviolet thermal processing products for film treatments; and VECTOR plasma-enhanced CVD ALD products.