Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) Short Interest Update

Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 24,860,000 shares, a decrease of 14.3% from the February 13th total of 29,020,000 shares. Currently, 1.9% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 12,720,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.0 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on LRCX. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Lam Research from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Lam Research from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $85.00 to $91.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target 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. KeyCorp raised shares of Lam Research from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $87.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Lam Research presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.06.

Insider Activity

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 owns 179,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,117,560. This represents a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lam Research

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LRCX. Financial Perspectives Inc increased its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 908.8% in the fourth quarter. Financial Perspectives Inc now owns 343 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 309 shares during the period. Fairway Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 900.0% in the fourth quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 340 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 306 shares during the period. Atwood & Palmer Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Lam Research in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Midwest Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lam Research in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, West Paces Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Lam Research in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Lam Research Price Performance

Lam Research stock opened at $77.55 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $99.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.56, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.53. Lam Research has a one year low of $68.87 and a one year high of $113.00. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $79.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $77.33. 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 (NASDAQ:LRCX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Lam Research had a return on equity of 51.86% and a net margin of 26.49%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Lam Research will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be given a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. Lam Research’s payout ratio is 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.