Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) Rating Increased to Buy at StockNews.com

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) was upgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on LRCX. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $930.00 to $980.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $850.00 to $950.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $1,000.00 price objective for the company. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $975.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $1,030.00 price target on shares of Lam Research in a research report on Thursday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $950.85.

Lam Research Stock Performance

NASDAQ LRCX opened at $925.37 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $943.67 and its 200-day moving average is $810.33. Lam Research has a 12-month low of $493.42 and a 12-month high of $1,007.39. The company has a quick ratio of 2.02, a current ratio of 2.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The firm has a market cap of $121.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.51.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The semiconductor company reported $7.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.26 by $0.53. Lam Research had a net margin of 25.35% and a return on equity of 45.96%. The business had revenue of $3.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.72 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $6.99 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Lam Research will post 29.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 5,500 shares of Lam Research stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $922.41, for a total transaction of $5,073,255.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 22,095 shares in the company, valued at $20,380,648.95. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 5,500 shares of Lam Research stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $922.41, for a total transaction of $5,073,255.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 22,095 shares in the company, valued at $20,380,648.95. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Abhijit Y. Talwalkar sold 882 shares of Lam Research stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $972.03, for a total transaction of $857,330.46. Following the sale, the director now owns 10,541 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,246,168.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 7,029 shares of company stock worth $6,559,489 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lam Research

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of LRCX. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Lam Research in the fourth quarter worth $1,414,111,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Lam Research by 76,165.7% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 318,028 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $249,099,000 after buying an additional 317,611 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in Lam Research by 1,125.6% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 342,139 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $267,984,000 after buying an additional 314,224 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Lam Research by 10.8% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,642,367 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,029,386,000 after buying an additional 159,815 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its stake in Lam Research by 106.5% during the third quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 301,071 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $188,702,000 after buying an additional 155,240 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

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.