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

NJ State Employees Deferred Compensation Plan raised its position in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 900.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 63,250 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 56,925 shares during the period. NJ State Employees Deferred Compensation Plan’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $4,569,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Lam Research by 892.7% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 18,578,181 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,341,902,000 after buying an additional 16,706,708 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Lam Research by 860.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 11,786,808 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $851,361,000 after buying an additional 10,559,508 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Lam Research by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,886,676 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,817,113,000 after buying an additional 94,086 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in Lam Research by 827.2% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 3,160,523 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $228,285,000 after buying an additional 2,819,668 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Lam Research by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,120,511 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,539,413,000 after buying an additional 64,053 shares during the last quarter. 84.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LRCX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Lam Research from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $85.00 to $91.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Lam Research from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Mizuho upped their target price 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. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Lam Research from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $98.22.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 $16,117,560. This trade represents a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Lam Research Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LRCX opened at $75.78 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $78.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $77.96. Lam Research Co. has a 52 week low of $68.87 and a 52 week high of $113.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.02, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a current ratio of 2.54, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last posted 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%. Analysts anticipate that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.