GoalVest Advisory LLC Increases Stock Position in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

GoalVest Advisory LLC boosted its position in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 900.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 10,850 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,765 shares during the period. GoalVest Advisory LLC’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $784,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of LRCX. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 1,394.7% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 16,081,071 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $13,123,440,000 after purchasing an additional 15,005,178 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in shares of Lam Research during the fourth quarter valued at about $175,652,000. Guinness Asset Management LTD lifted its stake in shares of Lam Research by 1,129.8% in the 4th quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 482,156 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $34,825,000 after purchasing an additional 442,949 shares during the period. ARS Investment Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Lam Research by 908.9% in the 4th quarter. ARS Investment Partners LLC now owns 490,881 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $35,456,000 after buying an additional 442,224 shares during the period. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lam Research during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,060,000. 84.61% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on LRCX shares. Mizuho cut their target price on Lam Research from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. StockNews.com downgraded Lam Research from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price target on Lam Research from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 29th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Lam Research from $83.00 to $82.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price target (down previously from $105.00) on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.77.

Lam Research Stock Performance

Shares of LRCX opened at $83.25 on Thursday. Lam Research Co. has a 1 year low of $68.87 and a 1 year high of $113.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a current ratio of 2.53. The company’s fifty day moving average is $74.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $80.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $107.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.45.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $4.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.06 billion. Lam Research had a return on equity of 50.60% and a net margin of 26.02%. Lam Research’s revenue was up 19.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $6.85 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Lam Research Co. will post 3.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.74%.

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.