Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)’s share price gapped down before the market opened on Monday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $929.00 to $774.00. The stock had previously closed at $769.72, but opened at $751.46. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Lam Research shares last traded at $750.40, with a volume of 32,810 shares trading hands.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on LRCX. Barclays raised their target price on Lam Research from $865.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Lam Research from $1,000.00 to $1,050.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. B. Riley increased their target price on shares of Lam Research from $1,130.00 to $1,325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $1,200.00 target price on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Lam Research from $950.00 to $1,060.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,013.37.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Neil J. Fernandes sold 4,409 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,055.76, for a total transaction of $4,654,845.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 6,857 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,239,346.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Neil J. Fernandes sold 4,409 shares of Lam Research stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,055.76, for a total transaction of $4,654,845.84. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,857 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,239,346.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Neil J. Fernandes sold 1,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,056.99, for a total value of $1,712,323.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,237 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,535,456.63. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 16,326 shares of company stock worth $17,383,715 in the last ninety days. 0.32% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lam Research

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LRCX. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Lam Research in the 4th quarter valued at $476,000. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Lam Research by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 693 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $543,000 after buying an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Lam Research by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 210,934 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $165,216,000 after buying an additional 4,052 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 10,508 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $8,231,000 after buying an additional 124 shares during the period. Finally, Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Lam Research by 18.6% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 22,040 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $17,263,000 after acquiring an additional 3,454 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Lam Research Price Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average of $855.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $929.39. The company has a current ratio of 2.97, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The company has a market capitalization of $100.48 billion, a PE ratio of 28.17, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.48.

Lam Research’s stock is set to split before the market opens on Thursday, October 3rd. The 10-1 split was announced on Tuesday, May 21st. The newly created shares will be payable to shareholders after the market closes on Wednesday, October 2nd.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The semiconductor company reported $8.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $7.58 by $0.56. The firm had revenue of $3.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.82 billion. Lam Research had a net margin of 25.68% and a return on equity of 48.71%. The business’s revenue was up 20.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $5.98 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Lam Research Co. will post 35.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be issued a dividend of $2.30 per share. This is a positive change from Lam Research’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.00. This represents a $9.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 17th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.84%.

Lam Research declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, May 21st that allows the company to buyback $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the semiconductor company to reacquire up to 8.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.