Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) Shares Gap Down – What’s Next?

Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $74.79, but opened at $71.65. Lam Research shares last traded at $72.26, with a volume of 888,784 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on LRCX shares. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of Lam Research in a report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Lam Research from $125.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Mizuho reduced their price target on Lam Research from $105.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Lam Research from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Lam Research in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Lam Research presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.03.

Lam Research Trading Down 6.3 %

The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market cap of $90.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.67, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $77.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $87.99.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The semiconductor company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $4.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.06 billion. Lam Research had a return on equity of 50.60% and a net margin of 26.02%. Lam Research’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $6.85 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Lam Research Co. will post 3.52 EPS for the current year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. Lam Research’s payout ratio is 29.77%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lam Research news, CAO Christina Correia sold 647 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $817.51, for a total value of $528,928.97. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,267 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,488,315.17. This trade represents a 13.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Lam Research during the second quarter valued at $32,000. RFP Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Lam Research by 52.2% in the 2nd quarter. RFP Financial Group LLC now owns 35 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 12 shares during the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Lam Research during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Country Trust Bank acquired a new position in shares of Lam Research during the second quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, MFA Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lam Research in the second quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.