Appaloosa LP Has $90.29 Million Stock Position in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Appaloosa LP lifted its position in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 1,150.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,250,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,150,000 shares during the period. Lam Research makes up about 1.4% of Appaloosa LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Appaloosa LP’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $90,288,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Insight Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Lam Research in the third quarter valued at about $202,000. B&L Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Lam Research in the third quarter valued at about $204,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd bought a new position in Lam Research in the third quarter valued at about $220,000. Concorde Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Lam Research in the third quarter valued at about $242,000. Finally, Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. bought a new position in Lam Research in the third quarter valued at about $245,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Lam Research news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of Lam Research stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total transaction of $9,907,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 179,084 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,117,560. The trade was a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Lam Research Price Performance

LRCX opened at $76.59 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $79.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 2.54 and a quick ratio of 1.73. Lam Research Co. has a 1 year low of $68.87 and a 1 year high of $113.00. The firm has a market cap of $98.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.27, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.53.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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, analysts predict that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. Lam Research’s payout ratio is presently 27.96%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LRCX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Susquehanna upgraded Lam Research from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $75.00 to $125.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Mizuho lifted their target price on Lam Research from $87.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Lam Research in a report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp upgraded Lam Research from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Lam Research from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $91.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.22.

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.