Lam Research Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 109,479 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 278% compared to the average daily volume of 28,929 call options.

Institutional Trading of Lam Research

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LRCX. One Charles Private Wealth Services LLC grew its position in Lam Research by 843.4% in the 4th quarter. One Charles Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 4,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $289,000 after acquiring an additional 3,576 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in Lam Research by 1,032.4% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 14,189 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,025,000 after buying an additional 12,936 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in Lam Research by 1,159.2% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 243,502 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $17,639,000 after buying an additional 224,164 shares in the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. raised its stake in Lam Research by 903.7% in the fourth quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 3,764 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $272,000 after buying an additional 3,389 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Montag A & Associates Inc. raised its stake in Lam Research by 916.4% in the fourth quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 17,798 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,290,000 after buying an additional 16,047 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LRCX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Lam Research from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Lam Research from $87.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Lam Research from $110.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Lam Research from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Lam Research from $100.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $92.78.

Lam Research Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:LRCX opened at $92.24 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.45, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Lam Research has a 12 month low of $56.32 and a 12 month high of $113.00. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $78.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.39. The company has a market cap of $117.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.71, a PEG ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.65.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The semiconductor company reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.04. Lam Research had a net margin of 27.18% and a return on equity of 53.21%. The firm had revenue of $4.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $7.79 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Lam Research will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 18th will be issued a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 18th. Lam Research’s payout ratio is 25.63%.

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.