Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) Shares Bought by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 653.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,437,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,051,527 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.81% of Lam Research worth $753,870,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fairway Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 900.0% in the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 340 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 306 shares during the period. Financial Perspectives Inc increased its stake in Lam Research by 908.8% in the fourth quarter. Financial Perspectives Inc now owns 343 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the period. Atwood & Palmer Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Lam Research in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Midwest Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lam Research during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, Bell Investment Advisors Inc lifted its position in Lam Research by 836.6% during the 4th quarter. Bell Investment Advisors Inc now owns 384 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 343 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LRCX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research lowered Lam Research from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Lam Research from $87.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Susquehanna raised Lam Research from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $125.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on Lam Research from $90.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $97.59.

Lam Research Stock Performance

Shares of LRCX opened at $59.09 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $75.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.95, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.52. 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 1 year low of $56.89 and a 1 year high of $113.00. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $78.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.08.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Lam Research had a net margin of 26.49% and a return on equity of 51.86%. On average, sell-side 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. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lam Research news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,117,560. This trade represents a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

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.