Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. Invests $235,000 in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. bought a new position in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 3,250 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $235,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in LRCX. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in Lam Research by 1,394.7% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 16,081,071 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $13,123,440,000 after acquiring an additional 15,005,178 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in Lam Research by 1,488.8% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,069,002 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $221,674,000 after acquiring an additional 2,875,843 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in Lam Research by 827.2% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 3,160,523 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $228,285,000 after acquiring an additional 2,819,668 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in Lam Research in the fourth quarter valued at $175,652,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Lam Research by 949.8% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,625,490 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $189,639,000 after acquiring an additional 2,375,385 shares in the last quarter. 84.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on LRCX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Lam Research from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Lam Research from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Lam Research from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Lam Research from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Lam Research from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $85.00 to $91.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lam Research currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $98.22.

Lam Research Stock Down 3.4 %

LRCX stock opened at $86.02 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 2.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. Lam Research Co. has a fifty-two week low of $68.87 and a fifty-two week high of $113.00. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $78.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $78.03. The stock has a market cap of $110.42 billion, a PE ratio of 26.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.46.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last released 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 net margin of 26.49% and a return on equity of 51.86%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.07%. Lam Research’s payout ratio is 27.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lam Research

In other Lam Research news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The shares were 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 owns 179,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,117,560. This trade represents a 38.07 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.