Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) Receives Buy Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) in a research report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $90.00 target price on the semiconductor company’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on LRCX. KeyCorp raised Lam Research from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price target (down from $105.00) on shares of Lam Research in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. B. Riley decreased their price target on shares of Lam Research from $132.50 to $105.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Lam Research from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $85.00 to $91.00 in a research note on Thursday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Lam Research has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.72.

Lam Research Stock Performance

Lam Research stock opened at $80.73 on Thursday. Lam Research has a fifty-two week low of $68.87 and a fifty-two week high of $113.00. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $75.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $78.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.74. The company has a market cap of $103.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.45.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Lam Research had a net margin of 26.49% and a return on equity of 52.58%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Lam Research will post 3.51 EPS for the current year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were issued a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.95%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lam Research

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in Lam Research by 1,394.7% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 16,081,071 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $13,123,440,000 after buying an additional 15,005,178 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its stake in shares of Lam Research by 1,488.8% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,069,002 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $221,674,000 after acquiring an additional 2,875,843 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in Lam Research by 827.2% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 3,160,523 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $228,285,000 after acquiring an additional 2,819,668 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in Lam Research during the 4th quarter valued at $175,652,000. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers boosted its holdings in Lam Research by 875.7% in the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 2,538,109 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $183,327,000 after purchasing an additional 2,277,989 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.