Artemis Investment Management LLP Increases Stake in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Artemis Investment Management LLP raised its holdings in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 443.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 149,307 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 121,852 shares during the quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $10,784,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Lam Research by 1,394.7% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 16,081,071 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $13,123,440,000 after buying an additional 15,005,178 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Lam Research by 1.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,886,676 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,817,113,000 after purchasing an additional 94,086 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,120,511 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,539,413,000 after acquiring an additional 64,053 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in Lam Research during the 4th quarter worth $175,652,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Lam Research by 0.6% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,871,473 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,527,273,000 after buying an additional 11,093 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on LRCX. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of Lam Research in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on Lam Research from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Lam Research from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 target price (down from $105.00) on shares of Lam Research in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.77.

Lam Research Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LRCX opened at $80.30 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Lam Research Co. has a twelve month low of $68.87 and a twelve month high of $113.00. The stock has a market cap of $103.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.45. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $74.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $80.81.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The semiconductor company reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.05. Lam Research had a net margin of 26.02% and a return on equity of 50.60%. The firm had revenue of $4.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.06 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $6.85 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Lam Research Co. will post 3.51 EPS for the current year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were issued a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.15%. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.77%.

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.