Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) Shares Up 2.2% After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) shot up 2.2% during trading on Tuesday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $137.00 to $158.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Lam Research traded as high as $159.45 and last traded at $158.19. 10,524,589 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 11% from the average session volume of 11,830,515 shares. The stock had previously closed at $154.79.

A number of other research firms have also commented on LRCX. Berenberg Bank lifted their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $122.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price target on Lam Research from $80.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Lam Research from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Zacks Research cut Lam Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Lam Research from $115.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Twenty-six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lam Research has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $152.87.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Douglas R. Bettinger sold 40,080 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.60, for a total transaction of $6,036,048.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 987,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,677,892.20. This represents a 3.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bethany Mayer sold 1,298 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.99, for a total transaction of $207,667.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 1,652 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $264,303.48. This represents a 44.00% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 102,608 shares of company stock worth $14,916,496 in the last ninety days. 0.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lam Research

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Lam Research during the second quarter worth $1,894,585,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Lam Research by 781.3% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 11,340,865 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,518,542,000 after buying an additional 10,053,978 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lam Research by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 129,152,102 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $9,389,358,000 after buying an additional 8,364,375 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Lam Research in the 1st quarter worth about $604,344,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Lam Research by 14.4% in the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 40,622,437 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,954,188,000 after acquiring an additional 5,102,589 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Lam Research Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a current ratio of 2.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.69 billion, a PE ratio of 34.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.77. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $148.20 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $116.01.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The semiconductor company reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.04. Lam Research had a net margin of 29.66% and a return on equity of 60.60%. The company had revenue of $5.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.23 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.86 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Lam Research has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.050-1.250 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Lam Research Corporation will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 7th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be paid a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.91%.

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.