Morgan Stanley Lowers Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) Price Target to $77.00

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) had its price target reduced by Morgan Stanley from $81.00 to $77.00 in a research note released on Wednesday.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their target price on Lam Research from $120.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com cut Lam Research from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $113.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Lam Research from $99.00 to $89.30 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on Lam Research from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $139.82.

Lam Research Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ LRCX opened at $72.86 on Wednesday. Lam Research has a 1 year low of $57.44 and a 1 year high of $113.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 2.97 and a quick ratio of 2.00. The company has a market capitalization of $9.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.47. The business has a 50-day moving average of $79.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $89.94.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The semiconductor company reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $3.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.82 billion. Lam Research had a return on equity of 48.71% and a net margin of 25.68%. The business’s revenue was up 20.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Lam Research will post 3.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 17th were issued a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 17th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is currently 3.38%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Christina Correia sold 647 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $817.51, for a total value of $528,928.97. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,267 shares in the company, valued at $3,488,315.17. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lam Research

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Lam Research by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,856,661 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $11,519,576,000 after buying an additional 144,914 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 5.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,959,151 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,875,023,000 after purchasing an additional 142,903 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 7.7% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,254,188 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,335,522,000 after purchasing an additional 89,470 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 11.1% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,075,893 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,145,664,000 after purchasing an additional 107,778 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 4.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 614,205 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $654,009,000 after purchasing an additional 25,362 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.