Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) Rating Increased to Positive at Susquehanna

Susquehanna upgraded shares of Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX - Free Report) from a neutral rating to a positive rating in a research note published on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has $125.00 target price on the semiconductor company's stock, up from their previous target price of $75.00.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Lam Research from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research cut Lam Research from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. B. Riley dropped their target price on shares of Lam Research from $132.50 to $105.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Lam Research from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $85.00 to $91.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $98.22.

Lam Research Stock Performance

LRCX stock traded down $3.00 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $86.02. 12,857,061 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 12,447,650. The stock's 50-day moving average is $78.27 and its 200 day moving average is $77.97. The stock has a market cap of $110.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.13, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.46. Lam Research has a 52-week low of $68.87 and a 52-week high of $113.00. The company has a current ratio of 2.54, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping 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, analysts anticipate that Lam Research will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.07%. Lam Research's payout ratio is presently 27.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lam Research news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the firm's 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 179,084 shares of the company's stock, valued at $16,117,560. This trade represents a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LRCX. Gould Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Lam Research by 51,071.0% during the 4th quarter. Gould Capital LLC now owns 15,863 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $1,146,000 after acquiring an additional 15,832 shares during the period. Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Lam Research during the fourth quarter valued at $36,000. Perennial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lam Research during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,894,000. AlphaCore Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Lam Research in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $208,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in Lam Research by 932.6% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,347,536 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $169,563,000 after purchasing an additional 2,120,197 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.61% of the company's stock.

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.