Chase Investment Counsel Corp Buys New Stake in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Chase Investment Counsel Corp bought a new stake in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 5,148 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $371,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 892.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 18,578,181 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,341,902,000 after buying an additional 16,706,708 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of 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 worth $13,123,440,000 after buying an additional 15,005,178 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 860.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 11,786,808 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $851,361,000 after buying an additional 10,559,508 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service purchased a new position in shares of Lam Research in the fourth quarter worth $219,200,000. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 1,488.8% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,069,002 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $221,674,000 after buying an additional 2,875,843 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Lam Research Stock Performance

LRCX opened at $76.70 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. The company has a market cap of $98.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.30, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.46. Lam Research Co. has a 52-week low of $68.87 and a 52-week high of $113.00. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $78.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $78.09.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Lam Research had a net margin of 26.49% and a return on equity of 51.86%. Equities analysts anticipate that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. Lam Research’s payout ratio is 27.96%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on LRCX. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Lam Research from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Lam Research from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $91.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $90.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Lam Research from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.22.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lam Research

In other 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 value of $9,907,200.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,117,560. This trade represents a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

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.