Lam Research Offers Positive Surprise

Technology

Published: October 17, 2018 10:25 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 4:18 pm

When Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) reported its fiscal first-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Tuesday, the company said that it had $3.36 in earnings per share (EPS) and $2.33 billion in revenue. The consensus estimates had called for $3.21 in EPS and revenue of $2.3 billion, and it the same period of last year the chip equipment maker posted EPS of $3.46 on $2.48 billion in revenue.

During the most recent quarter, deferred revenue and deferred profit decreased to $626 million and $542 million, respectively, as compared to $994 million and $720 million, respectively, at the end of the June 2018 quarter.

Looking ahead to the fiscal second quarter, the company expects to see EPS in the range of $3.27 to $3.67 and revenues between $2.35 billion and $2.65 billion. Consensus estimates call for $3.35 in EPS and $2.38 billion in revenue for the quarter.

At the end of the September 2018 quarter, cash and cash equivalents, short-term investments and restricted cash and investment balances decreased to $3.9 billion from $5.2 billion at the end of the June 2018 quarter. This decrease was primarily the result of $1.7 billion of share repurchases, including net share settlement on employee stock-based compensation.

Martin Anstice, Lam Research’s CEO, commented:

We are pleased to report September quarter results that modestly exceed expectations and forecast a stronger December quarter sequentially. More importantly, central to the Lam outperformance aspiration is our commitment to investing in innovation and close collaboration with our customers to address the technical and economic challenges of device and systems performance scaling. We remain focused on creating and capturing value for our customers in the world of emerging data economy opportunity.

Shares of Lam Research were last seen up over 4% at $151.66 on Wednesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $212.58 and a 52-week trading range of $135.99 to $234.88.