Lazard Asset Management LLC Makes New $1.69 Million Investment in ACM Research, Inc. $ACMR

Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of ACM Research, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACMR) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 43,034 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $1,693,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in ACM Research during the fourth quarter valued at $1,054,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in ACM Research by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,972,103 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $196,149,000 after purchasing an additional 125,690 shares during the period. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC raised its stake in shares of ACM Research by 71.8% during the 4th quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 188,500 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $7,436,000 after buying an additional 78,800 shares during the last quarter. Penn Capital Management Company LLC purchased a new position in shares of ACM Research during the 4th quarter valued at about $17,212,000. Finally, Yong Rong HK Asset Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of ACM Research in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,367,000. 66.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at ACM Research

In other ACM Research news, Director Haiping Dun sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.22, for a total transaction of $331,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $331,100. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider David H. Wang sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.05, for a total value of $5,403,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 802,708 shares in the company, valued at approximately $72,283,855.40. This trade represents a 6.95% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 123,752 shares of company stock valued at $10,752,198 over the last quarter. 24.36% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Zacks Research downgraded ACM Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of ACM Research in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Roth Capital set a $125.00 price objective on ACM Research and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $130.00 price objective (up from $90.00) on shares of ACM Research in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of ACM Research from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $127.50.

ACM Research Stock Performance

ACMR opened at $78.64 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $92.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $67.81. ACM Research, Inc. has a 52-week low of $23.03 and a 52-week high of $127.19. The company has a market cap of $4.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.03 and a beta of 1.96. The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 3.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

ACM Research (NASDAQ:ACMR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The specialty retailer reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $231.26 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $215.69 million. ACM Research had a net margin of 9.48% and a return on equity of 4.17%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.46 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that ACM Research, Inc. will post 1.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About ACM Research

ACM Research, Inc (NASDAQ:ACMR) designs, develops and markets wet processing equipment for the semiconductor industry. The company focuses on advanced wafer cleaning technologies that address critical contamination-control requirements for logic, memory and advanced packaging applications. Since its founding in 2003, ACM Research has engineered modular platform tools that can be configured for a range of spin, scrub and batch cleaning processes.

Its product portfolio encompasses single-wafer spin cleaning systems featuring high-purity megasonic capabilities, dynamic chemical scrubbing modules for post-CMP residue removal and batch-process cleaning equipment designed for high-throughput production environments.