HM Payson & Co. Purchases 1,035,549 Shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

HM Payson & Co. grew its position in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 935.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,146,277 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,035,549 shares during the period. Lam Research comprises about 1.4% of HM Payson & Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest holding. HM Payson & Co.’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $82,797,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of LRCX. Foster & Motley Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Lam Research during the 3rd quarter worth about $591,000. M&G PLC raised its position in shares of Lam Research by 21.9% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 24,662 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $20,124,000 after buying an additional 4,431 shares in the last quarter. Montecito Bank & Trust raised its position in shares of Lam Research by 109.2% in the 3rd quarter. Montecito Bank & Trust now owns 931 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $760,000 after buying an additional 486 shares in the last quarter. Summit Global Investments raised its position in shares of Lam Research by 60.2% in the 3rd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 7,208 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $5,882,000 after buying an additional 2,708 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AIA Group Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Lam Research in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $430,000. Institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on LRCX shares. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Lam Research from $90.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Lam Research from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Lam Research in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $87.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered shares of Lam Research from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Lam Research has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.22.

Lam Research Stock Up 3.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ LRCX opened at $79.01 on Friday. 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 company has a 50-day moving average price of $79.30 and a 200-day moving average price of $77.82. Lam Research Co. has a 1 year low of $68.87 and a 1 year high of $113.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $101.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.53.

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

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. Lam Research’s payout ratio is currently 27.96%.

Insider Activity at Lam Research

In other Lam Research news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of Lam Research 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 179,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,117,560. The trade was a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.