Meritage Portfolio Management Purchases New Position in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Meritage Portfolio Management acquired a new position in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 275 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 28.8% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 2,458 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,541,000 after purchasing an additional 549 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC grew its stake in Lam Research by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 1,137 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $713,000 after buying an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. Oak Thistle LLC increased its position in Lam Research by 14.5% during the third quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 530 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $332,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Lam Research by 2.0% in the third quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 62,610 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $39,242,000 after buying an additional 1,217 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 4.3% in the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 50,572 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $31,697,000 after acquiring an additional 2,105 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Abhijit Y. Talwalkar sold 882 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $972.03, for a total value of $857,330.46. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,541 shares in the company, valued at $10,246,168.23. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Lam Research news, CAO Christina Corrreia sold 647 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $972.03, for a total transaction of $628,903.41. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 5,541 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,386,018.23. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Abhijit Y. Talwalkar sold 882 shares of Lam Research stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $972.03, for a total transaction of $857,330.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 10,541 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,246,168.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 7,029 shares of company stock valued at $6,559,489. Corporate insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on LRCX. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Lam Research in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $1,000.00 target price on the stock. Susquehanna dropped their price target on Lam Research from $880.00 to $850.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Raymond James increased their price objective on Lam Research from $850.00 to $950.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Lam Research from $950.00 to $1,050.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Lam Research from $700.00 to $912.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Lam Research presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $950.85.

Lam Research Trading Up 2.7 %

Shares of LRCX stock opened at $925.37 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $121.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.03, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a quick ratio of 2.02, a current ratio of 2.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. Lam Research Co. has a fifty-two week low of $493.42 and a fifty-two week high of $1,007.39. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $943.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $809.10.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The semiconductor company reported $7.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.26 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $3.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.72 billion. Lam Research had a net margin of 25.35% and a return on equity of 45.96%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $6.99 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Lam Research Co. will post 29.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $2.00 per share. This represents a $8.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 12th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.42%.

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.