UPDATE: Stifel Nicolaus Raises PT on Lam Research Following 4Q13 Earnings Results

In a report published Thursday, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Patrick Ho reiterated a Buy rating on Lam Research LRCX, and raised the price target from $54.00 to $57.00.

In the report, Stifel Nicolaus noted, “On Wednesday after the market close, Lam Research reported 4Q13 (June) earnings results of $986.2 million in revenue and pro-forma EPS of $0.94, excluding options ($0.80, including), above our estimates of $977.3 million and $0.87 ($0.70, including), respectively. In our view, management's industry commentary is very consistent with our near term view and we remain favorably biased on its opportunity heading into 2014. In the near term, we believe the company is seeing some pushouts on the foundry side (notably from Korea), but this has been offset by a pickup in memory capex spending. Near-term, this memory pickup has been led by DRAM but we expect a higher bias towards NAND flash in 2H13. As a reminder, we have noted that Lam Research is one of the best exposed companies to the memory segment.”

Lam Research closed on Wednesday at $49.22.