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

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board boosted its holdings in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 2,979.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,549 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,044 shares during the quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $1,123,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 892.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,787,727 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $8,724,498,000 after purchasing an additional 108,619,564 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in Lam Research by 1,032.6% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 40,031,194 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,891,453,000 after buying an additional 36,496,689 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Lam Research by 907.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 31,428,010 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,265,610,000 after acquiring an additional 28,307,499 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Lam Research during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,661,672,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Lam Research by 892.7% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 18,578,181 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,341,902,000 after acquiring an additional 16,706,708 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 179,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,117,560. This trade represents a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on LRCX. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Lam Research from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Lam Research from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $85.00 to $91.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Lam Research from $100.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Wolfe Research cut Lam Research from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.30.

Lam Research Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LRCX opened at $68.44 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a current ratio of 2.54. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $75.92 and a 200 day moving average of $76.24. The firm has a market cap of $87.85 billion, a PE ratio of 20.79, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.52. Lam Research Co. has a one year low of $56.32 and a one year high of $113.00.

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, 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%. As a group, research analysts predict that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

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

Lam Research 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.