Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Buys 8,446 Shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its stake in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 904.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,380 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,446 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $678,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of LRCX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 108,619,564 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Lam Research in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,661,672,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 16,706,708 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its position in shares of Lam Research by 7,601.9% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 12,945,172 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $990,464,000 after purchasing an additional 12,777,094 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Lam Research by 860.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 11,786,808 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $851,361,000 after purchasing an additional 10,559,508 shares during the period. 84.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Lam Research Trading Down 2.9 %

Shares of LRCX stock opened at $72.61 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $93.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a current ratio of 2.54, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $79.51 and its 200 day moving average is $77.34. Lam Research Co. has a 12-month low of $68.87 and a 12-month 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 (EPS) 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%. Research analysts expect that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.96%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on LRCX. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Lam Research from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Susquehanna raised shares of Lam Research from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and raised their target price for the company from $75.00 to $125.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. KeyCorp raised Lam Research from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Oppenheimer began coverage on Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $95.00 price target on the stock. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $97.59.

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.