California Public Employees Retirement System Grows Stock Holdings in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

California Public Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 833.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 2,142,455 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,913,023 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $154,750,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. B&L Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lam Research during the third quarter worth $204,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Lam Research in the third quarter valued at about $220,000. Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Lam Research during the third quarter worth about $245,000. Fairway Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Lam Research by 900.0% during the fourth quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 340 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 306 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Perspectives Inc lifted its position in Lam Research by 908.8% in the fourth quarter. Financial Perspectives Inc now owns 343 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the period. 84.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LRCX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Lam Research from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $95.00 price target on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Susquehanna raised shares of Lam Research from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and increased their target price for the company from $75.00 to $125.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on Lam Research from $90.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 17th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.59.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of Lam Research stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total value 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 $16,117,560. The trade was a 38.07 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Lam Research Stock Down 2.9 %

LRCX stock opened at $72.61 on Monday. Lam Research Co. has a one year low of $68.87 and a one year high of $113.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $93.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.06, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $79.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $77.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a current ratio of 2.54.

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

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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 is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. Lam Research’s payout ratio is 27.96%.

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.