Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock investors purchased 28,177 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 91% compared to the typical volume of 14,764 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Christina Correia sold 647 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $817.51, for a total transaction of $528,928.97. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,267 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,488,315.17. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of LRCX. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Lam Research by 78.6% in the fourth quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 50 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Beacon Financial Group bought a new position in Lam Research in the 4th quarter worth about $246,000. Centaurus Financial Inc. grew its position in Lam Research by 43.6% during the 4th quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 563 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $441,000 after purchasing an additional 171 shares during the last quarter. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Lam Research during the 4th quarter valued at about $45,000. Finally, Twin Focus Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Lam Research in the fourth quarter worth about $246,000. 84.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on LRCX shares. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Lam Research from $92.90 to $77.40 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Lam Research from $105.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on Lam Research from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their target price on Lam Research from $120.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on Lam Research from $99.00 to $89.30 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Lam Research presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $141.28.

Lam Research Stock Performance

Shares of LRCX opened at $85.70 on Tuesday. Lam Research has a one year low of $57.44 and a one year high of $113.00. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $95.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $96.14. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $11.20 billion, a PE ratio of 3.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.47.

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

Lam Research Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th were given a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 17th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is presently 3.38%.

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.