Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) gapped down prior to trading on Monday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $929.00 to $774.00. The stock had previously closed at $769.72, but opened at $751.46. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Lam Research shares last traded at $750.40, with a volume of 32,810 shares changing hands.

LRCX has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Lam Research from $865.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $1,130.00 target price on shares of Lam Research in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Lam Research from $1,000.00 to $1,050.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Lam Research from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $990.00 to $893.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. 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, Lam Research has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,013.37.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Neil J. Fernandes sold 4,409 shares of Lam Research stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,055.76, for a total value of $4,654,845.84. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,857 shares in the company, valued at $7,239,346.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Neil J. Fernandes sold 4,409 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,055.76, for a total value of $4,654,845.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,857 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,239,346.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Neil J. Fernandes sold 1,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,056.99, for a total transaction of $1,712,323.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,535,456.63. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 16,326 shares of company stock worth $17,383,715. Company insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lam Research

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LRCX. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Lam Research in the first quarter valued at $192,668,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in Lam Research by 24.6% during the first quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 968,115 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $940,592,000 after purchasing an additional 191,230 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Lam Research by 1.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,856,661 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $11,519,576,000 after purchasing an additional 144,914 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Lam Research by 5.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,959,151 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,875,023,000 after purchasing an additional 142,903 shares during the period. Finally, Natixis boosted its position in Lam Research by 1,267.1% during the first quarter. Natixis now owns 142,967 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $138,902,000 after purchasing an additional 132,509 shares during the period. 84.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Lam Research Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 2.97 and a quick ratio of 2.00. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $855.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $929.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $101.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.17, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.48.

Shares of Lam Research are set to split on the morning of Thursday, October 3rd. The 10-1 split was announced on Tuesday, May 21st. The newly minted shares will be distributed to shareholders after the market closes on Wednesday, October 2nd.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The semiconductor company reported $8.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.58 by $0.56. The company had revenue of $3.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.82 billion. Lam Research had a net margin of 25.68% and a return on equity of 48.71%. Lam Research’s quarterly revenue was up 20.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $5.98 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Lam Research Co. will post 35.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be paid a $2.30 dividend. This represents a $9.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 17th. This is an increase from Lam Research’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.00. Lam Research’s payout ratio is 33.84%.

Lam Research declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, May 21st that authorizes the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to buy up to 8.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.