Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) Lowered to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Saturday morning.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. B. Riley upgraded shares of Lam Research from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $870.00 to $1,100.00 in a report on Friday, April 19th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a buy rating and issued a $1,030.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research in a report on Thursday, April 25th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $1,130.00 to $1,150.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Lam Research from $950.00 to $1,050.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price 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. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $950.85.

Lam Research Stock Up 2.8 %

LRCX stock traded up $24.85 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $908.53. 875,385 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,105,338. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 2.82. The firm has a market cap of $119.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.51. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $941.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $817.83. Lam Research has a 1-year low of $507.19 and a 1-year high of $1,007.39.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The semiconductor company reported $7.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $3.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.72 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $6.99 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Lam Research will post 29.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 5,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $922.41, for a total value of $5,073,255.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 22,095 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,380,648.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 5,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 22,095 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,380,648.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Patrick J. Lord sold 60 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $921.54, for a total value of $55,292.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,454 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,104,539.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 7,089 shares of company stock valued at $6,614,781. 0.32% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Lam Research by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,711,747 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $9,173,343,000 after acquiring an additional 79,581 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Lam Research by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,973,516 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,329,037,000 after acquiring an additional 86,721 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in Lam Research by 3.2% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,857,918 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,164,490,000 after acquiring an additional 56,824 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Lam Research during the fourth quarter worth about $1,414,111,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Lam Research by 9.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,523,215 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $954,705,000 after acquiring an additional 134,558 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Lam Research Company Profile

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.