Lam Research Upgraded To 'Buy' Amid Anticipated Boost From Samsung's HBM Expansion

Shares of Lam Research Corporation LRCX were trading higher on Monday, after ending last week in the red.

Samsung is likely planning to expand high bandwidth memory (HBM) capacity in the third quarter, and Lam Research is a prime beneficiary of this, given its strong position in DRAM, according to Stifel.

The Lam Research Analyst: Brian Chin upgraded the rating for Lam Research from Hold to Buy, while raising the price target from $505 to $725.

The Lam Research Thesis: The focus is currently on breakthroughs in generative AI and the resulting increase in WFE spending, Chin said in the upgrade note.

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“A related area warranting more attention is high bandwidth memory (HBM) – perhaps the under-appreciated piece of AI acceleration,” the analyst wrote.

"However, specialized HBM DRAM is not in abundance and while an uptick in AI-driven GPU/TPU demand is not driving incremental foundry WFE, it appears to be in DRAM," he added.

“We view Lam as a prime near-and-longer term beneficiary of HBM-driven DRAM growth, and off rock-bottom JunQ memory levels, see a path forward for Lam’s revenue trajectory to outperform consensus starting in calendar 2H,” Chin further stated.

LRCX Price Action: Shares of Lam Research had risen by 2.03% to $636.26 at the time of publication Monday.

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