Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) Rating Increased to Buy at B. Riley

B. Riley upgraded shares of Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has $1,100.00 price objective on the semiconductor company’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $870.00.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on LRCX. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Lam Research from $710.00 to $975.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Lam Research from $850.00 to $950.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Lam Research from $800.00 to $975.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Lam Research from $900.00 to $1,030.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on shares of Lam Research from $900.00 to $1,100.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Lam Research presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $899.64.

Lam Research Price Performance

Shares of LRCX stock opened at $870.25 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 3.06 and a quick ratio of 2.02. The company has a market capitalization of $114.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.65, a P/E/G ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.51. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $945.44 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $799.83. Lam Research has a one year low of $493.42 and a one year high of $1,007.39.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The semiconductor company reported $7.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.06 by $0.46. Lam Research had a net margin of 24.15% and a return on equity of 44.47%. The firm had revenue of $3.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.71 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $10.71 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 28.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Lam Research will post 28.92 EPS for the current year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $2.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 12th. This represents a $8.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.92%. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 5,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $922.41, for a total transaction of $5,073,255.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 22,095 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,380,648.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 5,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $922.41, for a total transaction of $5,073,255.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 22,095 shares in the company, valued at $20,380,648.95. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Abhijit Y. Talwalkar sold 882 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $972.03, for a total transaction of $857,330.46. Following the sale, the director now owns 10,541 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,246,168.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 7,029 shares of company stock valued at $6,559,489 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Lam Research

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lam Research in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. DSM Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lam Research in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lam Research in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Orion Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lam Research in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Finally, Partnership Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lam Research in the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

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.