Lazard Asset Management LLC Sells 196,169 Shares of Rambus, Inc. $RMBS

Lazard Asset Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Rambus, Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) by 65.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 101,701 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 196,169 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC owned approximately 0.09% of Rambus worth $8,749,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in RMBS. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Rambus by 70.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,148,653 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $381,220,000 after purchasing an additional 1,716,621 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Rambus during the 4th quarter worth $156,356,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of Rambus by 196.0% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,550,665 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $161,579,000 after buying an additional 1,026,776 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Rambus by 1,009.5% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,039,905 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $89,463,000 after buying an additional 946,177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Rambus by 192.8% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 701,746 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $44,926,000 after buying an additional 462,116 shares in the last quarter. 88.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on RMBS shares. Glj Research set a $165.00 target price on Rambus in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Rambus from $115.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Rambus in a research note on Tuesday. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Rambus in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Rambus from $120.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $139.78.

Insider Transactions at Rambus

In other news, EVP Xianzhi Sean Fan sold 37,914 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.69, for a total value of $5,751,174.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 168,358 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,538,225.02. This represents a 18.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Emiko Higashi sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.50, for a total transaction of $1,605,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 49,519 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,947,799.50. This trade represents a 16.80% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 62,914 shares of company stock valued at $9,724,775. 0.75% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Rambus Stock Up 8.2%

Shares of RMBS stock opened at $89.58 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.09 and a beta of 1.84. Rambus, Inc. has a twelve month low of $67.15 and a twelve month high of $174.10. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $125.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $114.28.

Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The semiconductor company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. Rambus had a return on equity of 17.89% and a net margin of 31.69%.The firm had revenue of $180.19 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $179.94 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Rambus, Inc. will post 2.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Rambus Profile

Rambus Inc is a technology licensing company specializing in semiconductor and system-level interface solutions. Founded in 1990 by Stanford University researchers Mike Farmwald and Mark Horowitz, Rambus established its headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. The company initially gained prominence by developing high-speed DRAM interface technology and securing a broad patent portfolio covering memory architecture, data signaling and power management innovations.

Today, Rambus licenses its proprietary intellectual property (IP) to semiconductor companies, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and system integrators worldwide.