Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Boosts Stake in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lifted its position in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX - Free Report) by 856.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 173,626 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after buying an additional 155,471 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado's holdings in Lam Research were worth $12,541,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 892.7% during 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 period. FMR LLC increased its stake in Lam Research by 1,032.6% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 40,031,194 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $2,891,453,000 after acquiring an additional 36,496,689 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings 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 valued at $2,265,610,000 after acquiring an additional 28,307,499 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Lam Research during the 4th quarter valued at $1,661,672,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 892.7% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 18,578,181 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $1,341,902,000 after purchasing an additional 16,706,708 shares in the last quarter. 84.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LRCX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Lam Research from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Argus upgraded Lam Research to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on Lam Research from $96.00 to $80.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $91.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other 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 directly owns 179,084 shares of the company's stock, valued at $16,117,560. This represents a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Lam Research Trading Up 1.1 %

LRCX stock traded up $0.77 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $71.67. The company had a trading volume of 11,210,488 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,127,411. The stock has a market cap of $92.00 billion, a PE ratio of 21.77, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.52. The business has a 50-day moving average of $72.46 and a 200-day moving average of $75.27. 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 Co. has a one year low of $56.32 and a one year high of $113.00.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The semiconductor company reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.04. Lam Research had a return on equity of 51.86% and a net margin of 26.49%. The business had revenue of $4.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $7.79 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 24.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were given a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.28%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. Lam Research's payout ratio is 25.63%.

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.