Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Lam Research Call Options (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Traders bought 48,997 call options on the company. This is an increase of 16% compared to the average volume of 42,219 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LRCX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Lam Research to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. StockNews.com cut shares of Lam Research from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Lam Research from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Mizuho cut their target price on Lam Research from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Lam Research from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $95.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Thursday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.72.

Lam Research Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LRCX opened at $80.73 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $103.87 billion, a PE ratio of 26.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Lam Research has a 12-month low of $68.87 and a 12-month high of $113.00. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $75.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $78.93.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last released 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 return on equity of 50.60% and a net margin of 26.02%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Lam Research will post 3.51 EPS for the current year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. Lam Research’s payout ratio is 29.74%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lam Research

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LRCX. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 1,394.7% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 16,081,071 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $13,123,440,000 after acquiring an additional 15,005,178 shares during the period. Swedbank AB boosted its stake in shares of Lam Research by 1,488.8% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,069,002 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $221,674,000 after purchasing an additional 2,875,843 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Lam Research by 827.2% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 3,160,523 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $228,285,000 after purchasing an additional 2,819,668 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Lam Research during the 4th quarter worth about $175,652,000. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers increased its stake in Lam Research by 875.7% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. 84.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.