Triple Frond Partners LLC Invests $36.97 Million in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Triple Frond Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 511,765 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,965,000. Lam Research accounts for approximately 4.8% of Triple Frond Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Parisi Gray Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 652.9% during the 4th 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 period. Burns J W & Co. Inc. NY bought a new stake in Lam Research during the fourth quarter worth $815,000. Centerpoint Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 900.0% in the 4th 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 increased its stake in shares of Lam Research by 51.9% in the 3rd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 215,420 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $175,800,000 after purchasing an additional 73,648 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 4,085.9% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on LRCX shares. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on Lam Research in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $95.00 target price on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Lam Research from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Susquehanna raised shares of Lam Research from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $125.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. 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 analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $98.06.

Lam Research Trading Up 2.8 %

NASDAQ:LRCX opened at $77.99 on Tuesday. Lam Research Co. has a 52 week low of $68.87 and a 52 week high of $113.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a current ratio of 2.54. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $79.70 and its 200-day moving average is $77.30. The firm has a market cap of $100.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.69, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.53.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. Equities analysts expect that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Investors 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 1.18%. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.96%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 179,084 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,117,560. This represents a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Lam Research Company 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.