Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)’s share price gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $74.14, but opened at $76.46. Lam Research shares last traded at $74.79, with a volume of 2,443,741 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on LRCX shares. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on Lam Research from $120.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on Lam Research from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Lam Research from $1,000.00 to $880.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. B. Riley lifted their price target on Lam Research from $113.00 to $132.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on Lam Research from $99.00 to $89.30 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Lam Research presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $141.28.

Lam Research Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $9.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $95.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $95.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a current ratio of 2.97.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The semiconductor company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $3.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.82 billion. Lam Research had a return on equity of 48.71% and a net margin of 25.68%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 20.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.60 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Lam Research Co. will post 3.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th were paid a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 17th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is 3.38%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Christina Correia sold 647 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $817.51, for a total value of $528,928.97. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,267 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,488,315.17. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.32% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lam Research

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LRCX. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Lam Research during the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Lam Research by 98.5% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 39,781 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $31,159,000 after purchasing an additional 19,742 shares during the period. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new position in shares of Lam Research in the fourth quarter worth $2,077,000. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 2.4% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,122 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,005,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the period. Finally, Collective Family Office LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 5.2% in the first quarter. Collective Family Office LLC now owns 284 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $276,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the period. 84.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.