South Dakota Investment Council Purchases 137,988 Shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

South Dakota Investment Council boosted its position in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 900.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 153,320 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 137,988 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $11,074,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Financial Perspectives Inc raised its stake in Lam Research by 908.8% during the 4th quarter. Financial Perspectives Inc now owns 343 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the period. Atwood & Palmer Inc. bought a new stake in Lam Research during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. West Oak Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Lam Research by 50.9% during the fourth quarter. West Oak Capital LLC now owns 400 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the last quarter. Country Trust Bank raised its position in shares of Lam Research by 900.0% during the fourth quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 400 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 360 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Finley Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lam Research during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,084 shares in the company, 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 document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on LRCX. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price 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 cut their target price on shares of Lam Research from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Lam Research from $87.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Lam Research in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Lam Research has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $98.22.

Lam Research Stock Down 3.4 %

Shares of LRCX opened at $86.02 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $110.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.46. Lam Research Co. has a 12-month low of $68.87 and a 12-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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $78.46 and a 200-day moving average price of $78.04.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Lam Research had a return on equity of 51.86% and a net margin of 26.49%. Equities research analysts expect that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.07%. Lam Research’s payout ratio is currently 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.