American Century Companies Inc. Purchases 1,197,337 Shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 1,093.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,306,829 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,197,337 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.10% of Lam Research worth $94,392,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of LRCX. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Lam Research by 892.7% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 18,578,181 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,341,902,000 after purchasing an additional 16,706,708 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised 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 valued at $990,464,000 after buying an additional 12,777,094 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in Lam Research by 860.4% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Lam Research by 931.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,482,429 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $612,686,000 after acquiring an additional 7,659,830 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its position in Lam Research by 843.4% in the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,661,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $264,470,000 after acquiring an additional 3,273,400 shares in the last quarter. 84.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Lam Research Stock Performance

Shares of LRCX opened at $77.99 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $79.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $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 Co. has a twelve month low of $68.87 and a twelve month high of $113.00. The firm has a market cap of $100.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.69, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.53.

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

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be given a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.18%. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.96%.

Insider Transactions at Lam Research

In other news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total transaction of $9,907,200.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 179,084 shares in the company, valued at $16,117,560. This represents a 38.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Lam Research from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research lowered Lam Research from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Lam Research from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $91.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Susquehanna upgraded Lam Research from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and raised their price target for the company from $75.00 to $125.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on Lam Research from $87.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Lam Research currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.06.

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.