Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Makes New $4.98 Million Investment in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System purchased a new stake in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 68,898 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,977,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 892.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 16,706,708 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its position in shares of Lam Research by 7,601.9% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 12,945,172 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $990,464,000 after buying an additional 12,777,094 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Lam Research by 860.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 11,786,808 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $851,361,000 after buying an additional 10,559,508 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Lam Research by 931.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,482,429 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $612,686,000 after acquiring an additional 7,659,830 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,886,676 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,817,113,000 after acquiring an additional 94,086 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on LRCX shares. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Lam Research from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Barclays lowered their price target on Lam Research from $90.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 17th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research in a report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Lam Research from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, 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 note on Friday, January 17th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Lam Research has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $98.22.

Insider Transactions at Lam Research

In other Lam Research news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,117,560. The trade was a 38.07 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Lam Research Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ LRCX opened at $77.93 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $100.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.67, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.53. 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 business’s 50 day moving average is $79.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $77.33. Lam Research Co. has a 1-year low of $68.87 and a 1-year high of $113.00.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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, research analysts expect that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.