Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) Shares Purchased by Banco Santander S.A.

Banco Santander S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 810.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 174,648 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 155,473 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $12,615,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LRCX. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in 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 in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Lam Research by 860.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 10,559,508 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Lam Research by 931.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,482,429 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $612,686,000 after purchasing an additional 7,659,830 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service acquired a new position in shares of Lam Research during the fourth quarter worth $219,200,000. Finally, Swedbank AB lifted its position in shares of Lam Research by 1,488.8% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,069,002 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $221,674,000 after purchasing an additional 2,875,843 shares in the last quarter. 84.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LRCX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Lam Research from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Lam Research in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Lam Research from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Lam Research from $87.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 179,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,117,560. This represents a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Lam Research Stock Up 3.3 %

Lam Research stock opened at $79.01 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $79.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $77.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $101.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.53. 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 Co. has a one year low of $68.87 and a one year high of $113.00.

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

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be given 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 dividend yield of 1.16%. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.