Smith Thornton Advisors LLC Buys 2,880 Shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Smith Thornton Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 900.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,880 shares during the quarter. Smith Thornton Advisors LLC’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $231,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of LRCX. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position 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 in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in shares of Lam Research during the 4th quarter worth approximately $175,652,000. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. grew its position in shares of Lam Research by 886.9% during the 4th quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 349,792 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $25,266,000 after buying an additional 314,349 shares during the period. Czech National Bank lifted its position in shares of Lam Research by 950.4% during the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 278,979 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $20,151,000 after acquiring an additional 252,420 shares during the period. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its holdings in Lam Research by 215.4% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 341,900 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $279,018,000 after purchasing an additional 233,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LRCX has been the subject of several research reports. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 target price (down from $105.00) on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Lam Research from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Lam Research from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $83.00 to $82.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $96.59.

Lam Research Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LRCX opened at $76.15 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $97.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.45. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $74.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.22. The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Lam Research Co. has a 1-year low of $68.87 and a 1-year high of $113.00.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The semiconductor company reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $4.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.06 billion. Lam Research had a return on equity of 50.60% and a net margin of 26.02%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $6.85 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Lam Research Co. will post 3.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.21%. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is 29.74%.

Lam Research Company 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.