Analysts Set Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) Target Price at $98.22

Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seventeen have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $98.22.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LRCX. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp raised shares of Lam Research from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $90.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total value of $9,907,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,084 shares in the company, valued at $16,117,560. This trade represents a 38.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of LRCX. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lam Research by 892.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,787,727 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $8,724,498,000 after acquiring an additional 108,619,564 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Lam Research by 1,032.6% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 40,031,194 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,891,453,000 after acquiring an additional 36,496,689 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lam Research by 950.5% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 34,543,915 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,495,128,000 after acquiring an additional 31,255,726 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Lam Research by 907.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 31,428,010 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,265,610,000 after acquiring an additional 28,307,499 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Lam Research during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,661,672,000. 84.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Lam Research Price Performance

LRCX stock opened at $73.36 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 2.54 and a quick ratio of 1.73. Lam Research has a one year low of $68.87 and a one year high of $113.00. The stock has a market cap of $94.17 billion, a PE ratio of 22.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.53. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $79.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $77.52.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Lam Research had a net margin of 26.49% and a return on equity of 51.86%. On average, analysts predict that Lam Research will post 3.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.96%.

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.