Columbia Asset Management Makes New Investment in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Columbia Asset Management bought a new position in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 4,750 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $345,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LRCX. Centerpoint Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Lam Research by 900.0% in the 4th quarter. Centerpoint Advisors LLC now owns 1,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Huntington National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Lam Research by 944.0% in the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 294,762 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $21,291,000 after purchasing an additional 266,527 shares during the last quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Lam Research by 1,401.1% in the 4th quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 70,475 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $5,090,000 after purchasing an additional 65,780 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Lam Research by 781.9% in the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 331,170 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $23,920,000 after purchasing an additional 293,619 shares during the last quarter. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Lam Research in the 4th quarter valued at $6,296,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on LRCX. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on shares of Lam Research from $96.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Lam Research from $81.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Lam Research from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, TD Securities lowered their target price on shares of Lam Research from $110.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lam Research has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $91.56.

Lam Research Price Performance

NASDAQ:LRCX opened at $84.77 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $74.00 and a 200-day moving average of $76.14. The company has a market capitalization of $108.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.75, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.64. Lam Research Co. has a 52 week low of $56.32 and a 52 week high of $113.00. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The semiconductor company reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $4.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.64 billion. Lam Research had a net margin of 26.49% and a return on equity of 51.86%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $7.79 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 18th will be given a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 18th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.63%.

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.