Lam Research (Nasdaq: LRCX) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Wednesday. Lam Research designs, manufactures, and markets semiconductor processing equipment used in making integrated circuits, and is recognized as a major provider of such equipment to the worldwide semiconductor industry.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on this stock with eight analysts rating it as a buy and only one rating it as a sell. Analysts like Lam Research better than competitor Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates overall. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared with three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $670.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 16.7% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.65 per share. Estimates range from $0.62 to $0.80.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 96.3% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 93.2% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Lam Research and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 125 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Lam Research's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Lam Research's profit has risen year over year by an average of more than fourfold over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter

Q4

Q3

Q2

Q1

Gross Margin

45.0%

46.2%

46.8%

46.8%

Operating Margin

18.9%

24.3%

27.7%

27.8%

Net Margin

16.7%

22.5%

25.5%

24.0%

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