Groupama Asset Managment Purchases 90,200 Shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Groupama Asset Managment boosted its holdings in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 361.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 115,121 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 90,200 shares during the quarter. Groupama Asset Managment’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $8,306,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Lam Research by 892.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,787,727 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $8,724,498,000 after purchasing an additional 108,619,564 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Lam Research by 907.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 31,428,010 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,265,610,000 after purchasing an additional 28,307,499 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Lam Research during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,661,672,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Lam Research by 892.7% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 18,578,181 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,341,902,000 after buying an additional 16,706,708 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 7,601.9% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 12,945,172 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $990,464,000 after buying an additional 12,777,094 shares in the last quarter. 84.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total value of $9,907,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 179,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,117,560. The trade was a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on LRCX. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Lam Research from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Mizuho lifted their target price on Lam Research from $87.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Wolfe Research lowered Lam Research from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Lam Research from $90.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $97.59.

Lam Research Stock Performance

Lam Research stock opened at $72.83 on Wednesday. Lam Research Co. has a fifty-two week low of $68.87 and a fifty-two week high of $113.00. The company has a market capitalization of $93.49 billion, a PE ratio of 22.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $79.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $77.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a current ratio of 2.54.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.96%.

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.