Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) gapped up prior to trading on Thursday after Mizuho raised their price target on the stock from $380.00 to $400.00. The stock had previously closed at $333.15, but opened at $365.13. Mizuho currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Lam Research shares last traded at $364.9540, with a volume of 2,464,007 shares changing hands.

LRCX has been the subject of a number of other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Lam Research from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $305.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Lam Research from $331.00 to $404.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus set a $500.00 target price on shares of Lam Research in a report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Twenty-eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $348.39.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Eric Brandt sold 54,500 shares of Lam Research stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.80, for a total transaction of $19,118,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 199,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,881,114. The trade was a 21.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Ava Harter sold 6,010 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $258.66, for a total transaction of $1,554,546.60. Following the transaction, the insider owned 53,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,762,005.30. The trade was a 10.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 86,339 shares of company stock worth $27,680,267. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LRCX. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Lam Research during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,645,427,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Lam Research by 352.2% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,695,210 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,344,347,000 after purchasing an additional 10,666,540 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Lam Research by 781.3% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 11,340,865 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,518,542,000 after purchasing an additional 10,053,978 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Lam Research by 57.0% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 10,110,560 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,730,724,000 after purchasing an additional 3,671,073 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Lam Research by 235.5% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,199,441 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $890,040,000 after purchasing an additional 3,649,553 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Lam Research Stock Up 7.5%

The firm has a market cap of $447.92 billion, a PE ratio of 67.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 2.54. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $330.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $261.73.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The semiconductor company reported $1.47 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.11. Lam Research had a net margin of 30.94% and a return on equity of 66.21%. The firm had revenue of $5.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.70 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.04 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. Lam Research has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 1.500-1.800 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Lam Research Corporation will post 5.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 17th were paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 17th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.62%.

Lam Research Company Profile

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.