Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-three research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eighteen have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $97.59.

LRCX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Lam Research from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Lam Research in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Lam Research from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on 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, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Lam Research from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday.

Lam Research Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ LRCX opened at $72.70 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 2.54 and a quick ratio of 1.73. Lam Research has a 12 month low of $68.87 and a 12 month high of $113.00. The company has a market capitalization of $93.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.53. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $79.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $77.31.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Lam Research had a return on equity of 51.86% and a net margin of 26.49%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Lam Research will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be given a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.27%. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.96%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total transaction of $9,907,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,117,560. The trade was a 38.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Parisi Gray Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 652.9% during the 4th quarter. Parisi Gray Wealth Management now owns 8,350 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $603,000 after acquiring an additional 7,241 shares in the last quarter. Burns J W & Co. Inc. NY purchased a new position in Lam Research in the fourth quarter valued at about $815,000. Centerpoint Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Lam Research by 900.0% during the fourth quarter. Centerpoint Advisors LLC now owns 1,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Lam Research by 51.9% in the third quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 215,420 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $175,800,000 after buying an additional 73,648 shares during the period. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its stake in shares of Lam Research by 4,085.9% in the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 13,395 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $10,932,000 after buying an additional 13,075 shares in the last quarter. 84.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.