Lam Research Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) saw unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Investors acquired 85,762 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 112% compared to the average daily volume of 40,536 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lam Research

In other news, CFO Douglas R. Bettinger sold 40,080 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.60, for a total value of $6,036,048.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 987,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,677,892.20. The trade was a 3.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lam Research

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Lam Research by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 130,974,214 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $17,537,447,000 after buying an additional 364,949 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Lam Research by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 59,817,352 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $8,024,684,000 after acquiring an additional 265,805 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 14.4% in the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 40,622,437 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,954,188,000 after acquiring an additional 5,102,589 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Lam Research by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 33,802,736 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,280,484,000 after acquiring an additional 1,135,405 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Lam Research by 18.2% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 21,182,948 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,836,397,000 after purchasing an additional 3,263,658 shares during the last quarter. 84.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on LRCX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Lam Research from $165.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Argus lifted their price objective on Lam Research from $175.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. HSBC boosted their price objective on Lam Research from $181.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $262.00 target price on Lam Research and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Lam Research from $250.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Lam Research currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $244.88.

Lam Research Stock Down 0.7%

NASDAQ LRCX traded down $1.55 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $229.47. 3,145,304 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,759,859. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 2.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The firm has a market cap of $286.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.99, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a 50 day moving average of $194.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $151.05. Lam Research has a 52-week low of $56.32 and a 52-week high of $251.87.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.27 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.10. Lam Research had a return on equity of 62.81% and a net margin of 30.22%.The business had revenue of $5.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.91 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. Lam Research has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.250-1.450 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Lam Research will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be given a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 4th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.31%.

About Lam Research

Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ: LRCX) is a global supplier of wafer fabrication equipment and services to the semiconductor industry. Founded in 1980 by David K. Lam and headquartered in Fremont, California, the company develops and manufactures systems used in multiple stages of semiconductor device production, including thin film deposition, plasma etch, wafer cleaning and related process modules and automation.

Lam’s product portfolio covers core process technologies employed by logic and memory manufacturers, with equipment designed to support advanced-node patterning, 3D NAND and other emerging device architectures.