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Lam Research (LRCX) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Lam Research (LRCX - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $412.12, moving +0.74% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.59%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.53%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.45%.

Heading into today, shares of the semiconductor equipment maker had lost 11.33% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 6.38% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.33% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Lam Research as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Lam Research is projected to report earnings of $9.96 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 16.76%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.08 billion, up 20.25% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $34.61 per share and revenue of $18.13 billion, which would represent changes of +4.5% and +5.22%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Lam Research. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.06% lower. Lam Research is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Looking at its valuation, Lam Research is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 11.82. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 13.57, which means Lam Research is trading at a discount to the group.

Also, we should mention that LRCX has a PEG ratio of 1.67. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. LRCX's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.67 as of yesterday's close.

The Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 46, which puts it in the top 19% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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