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

Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock investors purchased 85,762 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 112% compared to the average volume of 40,536 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Douglas R. Bettinger sold 40,080 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.60, for a total value of $6,036,048.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 987,237 shares in the company, valued at $148,677,892.20. The trade was a 3.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Lam Research

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LRCX. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Lam Research by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 130,974,214 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $17,537,447,000 after acquiring an additional 364,949 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Lam Research by 0.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 59,817,352 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $8,024,684,000 after purchasing an additional 265,805 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Lam Research by 14.4% in the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 40,622,437 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,954,188,000 after purchasing an additional 5,102,589 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lam Research by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 33,802,736 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,280,484,000 after purchasing an additional 1,135,405 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Lam Research by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 21,182,948 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,836,397,000 after purchasing an additional 3,263,658 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LRCX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Berenberg Bank boosted their price target on shares of Lam Research from $122.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price target on shares of Lam Research from $80.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. B. Riley Financial reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Lam Research in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Argus raised their target price on Lam Research from $175.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $244.88.

Lam Research Price Performance

Shares of Lam Research stock traded down $1.55 on Monday, hitting $229.47. 3,145,304 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,759,859. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 2.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $194.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $151.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $286.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.78. Lam Research has a 1-year low of $56.32 and a 1-year high of $251.87.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.27 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $5.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.23 billion. Lam Research had a return on equity of 62.81% and a net margin of 30.22%.The firm’s revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.91 earnings per share. Lam Research has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.250-1.450 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Lam Research will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 4th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.31%.

About Lam Research

Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ: LRCX) is a global supplier of wafer fabrication equipment and services to the semiconductor industry. Founded in 1980 by David K. Lam and headquartered in Fremont, California, the company develops and manufactures systems used in multiple stages of semiconductor device production, including thin film deposition, plasma etch, wafer cleaning and related process modules and automation.

Lam’s product portfolio covers core process technologies employed by logic and memory manufacturers, with equipment designed to support advanced-node patterning, 3D NAND and other emerging device architectures.