Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) Trading Up 1.9% – Still a Buy?

Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) shares shot up 1.9% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $75.64 and last traded at $75.25. 2,097,330 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 11,212,367 shares. The stock had previously closed at $73.85.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on LRCX shares. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Lam Research from $99.00 to $89.30 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research in a report on Thursday, October 24th. StockNews.com cut Lam Research from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Lam Research from $105.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price objective (down from $105.00) on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.03.

Lam Research Trading Down 6.3 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $77.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $87.99. The stock has a market cap of $90.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.48.

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

Lam Research Announces Dividend

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 given a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.31%. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.74%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lam Research

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

Institutional Trading of Lam Research

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 2.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,120,511 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,539,413,000 after acquiring an additional 64,053 shares in the last quarter. Savoie Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Lam Research by 12.2% during the 3rd quarter. Savoie Capital LLC now owns 8,280 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $6,757,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Lam Research by 667.4% in the 3rd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 2,563 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,092,000 after buying an additional 2,229 shares in the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment lifted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 7.8% in the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 24,921 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $203,000 after buying an additional 1,810 shares during the period. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Lam Research by 67.9% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 189,728 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $154,833,000 after buying an additional 76,752 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

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.