William Blair Investment Management LLC Raises Position in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its position in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 1,001.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,410,320 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,100,838 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $246,327,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Wealth Architects LLC raised its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 897.7% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Architects LLC now owns 264,781 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $19,125,000 after purchasing an additional 238,241 shares in the last quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Lam Research by 912.6% during the 4th quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. now owns 154,010 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $11,124,000 after acquiring an additional 138,801 shares in the last quarter. Cassady Schiller Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Lam Research by 988.6% during the 4th quarter. Cassady Schiller Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,143 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $83,000 after acquiring an additional 1,038 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in Lam Research by 940.1% in the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 33,106 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,391,000 after purchasing an additional 29,923 shares during the period. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in Lam Research by 1,034.9% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 17,943 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,296,000 after purchasing an additional 16,362 shares during the period. 84.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on LRCX. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of 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. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Lam Research from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lam Research currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.22.

Insider Activity

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 transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Lam Research Price Performance

LRCX opened at $78.69 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 2.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. Lam Research Co. has a 52-week low of $68.87 and a 52-week high of $113.00. The company has a 50 day moving average of $79.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $77.39. The company has a market cap of $101.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.53.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last announced its 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%. On average, analysts expect that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.17%. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.