Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Boosts Holdings in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board increased its position in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 2,979.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 15,549 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 15,044 shares during the quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $1,123,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co increased its position in shares of Lam Research by 48.3% during the 3rd quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 11,464 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $9,364,000 after purchasing an additional 3,732 shares during the last quarter. Arvest Bank Trust Division purchased a new position in Lam Research during the third quarter worth about $18,106,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB increased its position in shares of Lam Research by 383.7% during the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 4,547 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,711,000 after acquiring an additional 3,607 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Lam Research by 409.6% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 37,420 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $30,538,000 after acquiring an additional 30,077 shares during the period. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 22.4% in the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 3,071 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,508,000 after acquiring an additional 561 shares during the last quarter. 84.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lam Research news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,117,560. This trade represents a 38.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group cut their target price on Lam Research from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Susquehanna upgraded Lam Research from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $75.00 to $125.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Lam Research from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $85.00 to $91.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer cut their price target on shares of Lam Research from $95.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lam Research has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $95.30.

Lam Research Stock Up 0.9 %

LRCX stock opened at $68.44 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $75.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $76.24. Lam Research Co. has a twelve month low of $56.32 and a twelve month high of $113.00. The company has a current ratio of 2.54, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The stock has a market cap of $87.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.79, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.52.

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

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.34%. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.96%.

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.