What Happened?
Shares of semiconductor equipment maker Lam Research (NASDAQ: LRCX) jumped 5.9% in the morning session after several analysts raised their price targets on the stock, citing confidence in the company's outlook.
B. Riley lifted its price target to $195 from $180 and maintained its Buy rating. Similarly, analysts at Mizuho and Jefferies both increased their price targets to $200, with Mizuho keeping an "Outperform" rating on the shares. This wave of positive sentiment from analysts followed reports of the company's strong performance in its systems revenues. In the first quarter of fiscal 2026, this segment's sales surged 48.3% compared to the previous year, with a significant portion of that growth driven by demand from the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
Is now the time to buy Lam Research? Access our full analysis report here.
What Is The Market Telling Us
Lam Research’s shares are very volatile and have had 23 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 3 days ago when the stock gained 3.2% on the news that an analyst at Jefferies maintained the company's "Buy" rating and raised its price target.
The analyst, Blayne Curtis, increased the price target for the semiconductor equipment maker to $200 from $175, a lift of over 14%. This action, combined with the reaffirmed positive rating, reflected growing confidence in Lam Research's market performance and future growth prospects within the semiconductor industry.
Lam Research is up 128% since the beginning of the year, and at $165.10 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $168.71 from December 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Lam Research’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $3,433.
The 1999 book Gorilla Game predicted Microsoft and Apple would dominate tech before it happened. Its thesis? Identify the platform winners early. Today, enterprise software companies embedding generative AI are becoming the new gorillas. Click here for access to our special report that reveals one profitable leader already riding this wave.
