First Business Financial Services Inc. Raises Holdings in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

First Business Financial Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX - Free Report) by 935.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 29,585 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after purchasing an additional 26,729 shares during the period. First Business Financial Services Inc.'s holdings in Lam Research were worth $2,137,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LRCX. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Lam Research by 892.7% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 18,578,181 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $1,341,902,000 after purchasing an additional 16,706,708 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Lam Research by 860.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 11,786,808 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $851,361,000 after purchasing an additional 10,559,508 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Lam Research by 931.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,482,429 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $612,686,000 after purchasing an additional 7,659,830 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service purchased a new position in shares of Lam Research during the fourth quarter valued at about $219,200,000. Finally, Swedbank AB grew its position in shares of Lam Research by 1,488.8% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,069,002 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $221,674,000 after purchasing an additional 2,875,843 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.61% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on LRCX shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Lam Research from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp upgraded Lam Research from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $95.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Susquehanna upgraded Lam Research from a "neutral" rating to a "positive" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $75.00 to $125.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Lam Research in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Lam Research from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $98.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total value of $9,907,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 179,084 shares of the company's stock, valued at $16,117,560. The trade was a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 insiders.

Lam Research Stock Performance

Lam Research stock opened at $79.05 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $79.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $77.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a current ratio of 2.54. 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 market capitalization of $101.47 billion, a PE ratio of 24.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.46.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Lam Research had a net margin of 26.49% and a return on equity of 51.86%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. Lam Research's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.96%.

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.

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