Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) shares gapped up prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $71.57, but opened at $73.85. Lam Research shares last traded at $74.40, with a volume of 1,005,047 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on LRCX. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of Lam Research in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their target price on Lam Research from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com cut Lam Research from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.29.

Lam Research Stock Up 5.4 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a current ratio of 2.53. The company has a market capitalization of $97.04 billion, a PE ratio of 23.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.48. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $76.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $86.79.

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

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. Lam Research’s payout ratio is currently 29.74%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lam Research news, CAO Christina Correia sold 647 shares of Lam Research stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $817.51, for a total transaction of $528,928.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,267 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,488,315.17. The trade was a 13.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in Lam Research by 1,394.7% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 16,081,071 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $13,123,440,000 after buying an additional 15,005,178 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Lam Research by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,886,676 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,817,113,000 after acquiring an additional 94,086 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Lam Research by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,120,511 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,539,413,000 after purchasing an additional 64,053 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 0.6% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,871,473 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,527,273,000 after purchasing an additional 11,093 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Lam Research by 7.7% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,254,188 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,335,522,000 after purchasing an additional 89,470 shares during the period. 84.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.