Lam Research will report earnings on Wednesday after the market close, and lrcx stock enters the release with momentum behind it. The semiconductor equipment maker last quarter posted revenue of $5.34 billion, up 22.1% from a year earlier, beat analysts’ earnings estimates and gave next-quarter revenue guidance that came in above Wall Street’s expectations.
That backdrop matters because the market is looking for Lam Research to keep growing revenue 21.6% year on year this quarter, just under the 24.4% growth it delivered in the same period last year. Shares have already risen 13.2% over the past month, even as the broader semiconductor segment gained 27.2% on average. Lam Research also has an average analyst price target of $281.23, above its current share price of $264.17.
The latest run-up has been helped by a familiar pattern in the chip world: investors are rewarding companies that can still show demand, even if the growth rates are uneven. Micron reported year-on-year revenue growth of 196% in its fiscal first quarter and beat analysts’ expectations by 20.1%, yet its shares traded down 3.8% after the results. Penguin Solutions posted a 6.2% revenue decline in its first quarter, topped estimates by 0.8% and saw its shares jump 13.4%.
Lam Research’s own setup is tighter than those peers because the company has a history of exceeding Wall Street’s expectations, and the majority of analysts covering the stock have reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days. That leaves Wednesday’s report as less of a referendum on whether business is improving and more of a test of whether management can clear a market that is already leaning bullish.
Lam Research is a semiconductor equipment maker listed on Nasdaq under the ticker LRCX, and the earnings release will tell investors whether the recent advance in lrcx stock has room to continue or whether the market has already priced in too much of the good news.
