Fayez Sarofim & Co Invests $939,000 in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Fayez Sarofim & Co purchased a new position in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 13,000 shares of the semiconductor company's stock, valued at approximately $939,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Lam Research by 892.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,787,727 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $8,724,498,000 after acquiring an additional 108,619,564 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Lam Research by 1,032.6% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 40,031,194 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $2,891,453,000 after purchasing an additional 36,496,689 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Lam Research by 907.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 31,428,010 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $2,265,610,000 after buying an additional 28,307,499 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Lam Research in the fourth quarter valued at $1,661,672,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Lam Research by 892.7% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 18,578,181 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $1,341,902,000 after acquiring an additional 16,706,708 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.61% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on LRCX. Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on shares of Lam Research from $96.00 to $80.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Lam Research from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Lam Research from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $91.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Lam Research from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $92.70.

Lam Research Price Performance

NASDAQ LRCX traded up $0.52 on Friday, reaching $71.42. 9,749,642 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 12,138,062. The stock has a market cap of $91.68 billion, a PE ratio of 21.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.52. Lam Research Co. has a 12 month low of $56.32 and a 12 month high of $113.00. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $75.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 2.54 and a quick ratio of 1.73.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The semiconductor company reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $4.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.64 billion. Lam Research had a net margin of 26.49% and a return on equity of 51.86%. As a group, research analysts predict that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were paid a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. Lam Research's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.63%.

Insider Activity at Lam Research

In other Lam Research news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total transaction of $9,907,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 179,084 shares of the company's stock, valued at $16,117,560. This represents a 38.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Lam Research 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.