Essex Financial Services Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Essex Financial Services Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 10.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 543 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 61 shares during the quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $425,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Lam Research during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Orion Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Lam Research in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Lam Research in the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Asset Dedication LLC raised its stake in Lam Research by 56.7% in the third quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 47 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in Lam Research in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. 84.61% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Lam Research

In related news, Director Abhijit Y. Talwalkar sold 882 shares of Lam Research stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $972.03, for a total transaction of $857,330.46. Following the transaction, the director now owns 10,541 shares in the company, valued at $10,246,168.23. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, Director Abhijit Y. Talwalkar sold 882 shares of Lam Research stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $972.03, for a total transaction of $857,330.46. Following the transaction, the director now owns 10,541 shares in the company, valued at $10,246,168.23. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 5,500 shares of Lam Research stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $922.41, for a total value of $5,073,255.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 22,095 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,380,648.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 7,089 shares of company stock valued at $6,614,781 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LRCX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $1,030.00 price target on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Lam Research from $930.00 to $980.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com cut Lam Research from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Lam Research from $900.00 to $950.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Lam Research from $975.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $950.85.

Lam Research Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of LRCX opened at $908.53 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.82, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. Lam Research Co. has a 12 month low of $507.19 and a 12 month high of $1,007.39. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $941.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $816.04. The firm has a market cap of $119.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.41, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.51.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The semiconductor company reported $7.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.26 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $3.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.72 billion. Lam Research had a return on equity of 45.96% and a net margin of 25.35%. The business’s revenue was down 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $6.99 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Lam Research Co. will post 29.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were paid a $2.00 dividend. This represents a $8.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 12th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.42%.

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.