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

Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday after Bank of America lowered their price target on the stock from $110.00 to $90.00. The stock had previously closed at $68.44, but opened at $65.24. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the stock. Lam Research shares last traded at $66.79, with a volume of 1,549,466 shares.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on LRCX. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Lam Research from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Lam Research from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Barclays cut their price target on 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. Finally, Susquehanna upgraded Lam Research from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $75.00 to $125.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.06.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lam Research news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total value of $9,907,200.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,084 shares in the company, valued at $16,117,560. This represents a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lam Research

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fairway Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 900.0% in the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 340 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 306 shares in the last quarter. Financial Perspectives Inc increased its stake 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 valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. acquired a new position in Lam Research during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. West Paces Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Lam Research in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Lam Research in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Lam Research Trading Down 3.1 %

The business’s fifty day moving average is $75.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $76.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 2.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The firm has a market cap of $85.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.52.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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%. Equities analysts anticipate that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.39%. 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.