Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Here's How Much a $1000 Investment in Lam Research Made 10 Years Ago Would Be Worth Today

Read MoreHide Full Article

How much a stock's price changes over time is a significant driver for most investors. Not only can price performance impact your portfolio, but it can help you compare investment results across sectors and industries as well.

Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Lam Research (LRCX - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to LRCX for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Lam Research's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Lam Research's main business drivers.

Established in 1980 and headquartered in Fremont, CA, Lam Research Corporation supplies wafer fabrication equipment and services to the semiconductor industry. Its products are used by semiconductor manufacturers in front-end and WLP processes, creating memory, microprocessors, and other logic integrated circuits for a broad range of electronic devices.

The MOS process of making integrated circuits involve the deposition of many layers of materials on a semiconductor wafer. Each layer is prepared using a pattern on a photomask, cleaning off the excess material and then exposing to light sources to change the chemical composition of the layer. The final wafer is then planarized, cut into individual die, electrical leads attached and packaged.

Lam's product offerings in deposition and etch address numerous critical steps in the fabrication process with the goal of reducing defect rates, improving yields, lowering costs and reducing the processing time.

In fiscal 2020, Lam served three market segments—Memory, Foundry and Logic/Integrated device manufacturing which generated 61% (down from 78% in 2019), 29% (up from 14% in 2019) and 10% (up from 8% in 2019), of its revenues, respectively.

The revenue distribution by geography in fiscal 2020 was as follows —Korea 32% (up from 14% in 2019), Taiwan 11% (down from 13% in 2019), Japan 8% (down from 17% in 2019), China 34% (up from 16% in 2019), U.S accounted for 7% (down from 7% in 2019), Europe 3% (down from 5% in 2019) and South East Asia accounted for 5% ( down from 7% in 2019).

Being a leading producer of specialized equipment, most of the competition comes from other large equipment makers, such as KLA-Tencor Corporation and Applied Materials, Inc.

Bottom Line

While anyone can invest, building a lucrative investment portfolio takes research, patience, and a little bit of risk. If you had invested in Lam Research ten years ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in June 2011 would be worth $13,990.95, or a 1,299.09% gain, as of June 2, 2021. Investors should keep in mind that this return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.

In comparison, the S&P 500 gained 219.66% and the price of gold went up 19% over the same time frame.

Going forward, analysts are expecting more upside for LRCX.

Lam Research is riding on secular growth across data transport, analysis and storage. Further, increasing NAND requirement in accelerating 5G migration, video, and new game consoles is driving the top-line growth of the company. Furthermore, persistent Foundry strength remains a major positive. Also, advanced packaging technology inflections are other positives. Strong demand in key electronic categories, including PCs, storage and networking is a tailwind. Additionally, Lam Research has been benefiting from the transition to new data-enabled economy, wherein DRAM and NAND are continuously gaining from density growth. Also, both etch and deposition technologies are expected to expand the company’s addressable market. The stock has outperformed its industry over a year. However, uncertainty due to the coronavirus outbreak remains a concern.

The stock is up 7.05% over the past four weeks, and no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 7 higher, for fiscal 2021. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


Lam Research Corporation (LRCX) - free report >>

Published in