NJ State Employees Deferred Compensation Plan Increases Holdings in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

NJ State Employees Deferred Compensation Plan lifted its position in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 900.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 63,250 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 56,925 shares during the quarter. NJ State Employees Deferred Compensation Plan’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $4,569,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lam Research by 892.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 16,706,708 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Lam Research by 860.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 10,559,508 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake 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 worth $4,817,113,000 after acquiring an additional 94,086 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Lam Research by 827.2% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 3,160,523 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $228,285,000 after acquiring an additional 2,819,668 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lam Research by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,120,511 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,539,413,000 after acquiring an additional 64,053 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Lam Research Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ LRCX opened at $75.78 on Tuesday. Lam Research Co. has a 52-week low of $68.87 and a 52-week high of $113.00. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $78.98 and a 200-day moving average of $77.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $97.28 billion, a PE ratio of 23.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.46. 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 (NASDAQ:LRCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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%. On average, analysts anticipate that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be given a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.21%. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,117,560. This represents a 38.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays cut their price objective on Lam Research from $90.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. KeyCorp upgraded Lam Research from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Lam Research from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Susquehanna upgraded Lam Research from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $75.00 to $125.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $98.22.

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.