Sciencast Management LP Purchases New Stake in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Sciencast Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 41,461 shares of the semiconductor company's stock, valued at approximately $2,995,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in LRCX. Parisi Gray Wealth Management boosted its position in Lam Research by 652.9% during the fourth quarter. Parisi Gray Wealth Management now owns 8,350 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $603,000 after acquiring an additional 7,241 shares during the last quarter. Burns J W & Co. Inc. NY acquired a new position in shares of Lam Research during the 4th quarter worth approximately $815,000. Centerpoint Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Lam Research by 900.0% in the fourth quarter. Centerpoint Advisors LLC now owns 1,000 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC lifted its position in Lam Research by 51.9% during the third quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 215,420 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $175,800,000 after buying an additional 73,648 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its stake in Lam Research by 4,085.9% during the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 13,395 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $10,932,000 after buying an additional 13,075 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.61% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on LRCX shares. Wolfe Research lowered Lam Research from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Lam Research in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Lam Research from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $91.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Lam Research from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, 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 research note on Thursday, December 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $98.06.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total value of $9,907,200.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,084 shares in the company, valued at $16,117,560. This represents a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.29% of the company's stock.

Lam Research Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LRCX traded down $0.32 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $77.67. The company had a trading volume of 6,436,759 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,065,382. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $79.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $77.31. 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 0.51, a current ratio of 2.54 and a quick ratio of 1.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $99.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.53.

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

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. Lam Research's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.96%.

About Lam Research

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.