Lam Research jumped 3.6% Thursday, capping a 12% monthly rally. Short interest climbed 11% in 30 days even as Wall Street lifted price targets across the board. Put/call ratio spiked to the highest in a month, signaling defensive positioning.
LRCX closed at $267.78 on April 24, up 3.6% on the day. The stock is flat over the past week but has surged 12.1% in the past month. The gain follows the company's April 22 earnings release.
Short interest stands at 29.65 million shares, or 2.36% of float. That figure rose 1.6% Wednesday to the highest level since April 17. Over the past 30 days, short interest climbed 11%, adding roughly 3 million shares. The reading hit a month-long low of 25.66 million shares on March 30 before reversing higher.
Cost to borrow sits at 0.37%, up 14% over the past week and 27% over the past month. Utilisation registered 0.95% on April 23, the highest since April 10, when it briefly touched 1.01%. The 52-week high for utilisation was 2.41%, last visited in mid-2025.
The put/call ratio reached 1.09 on April 24, the highest reading since late March. The 20-day mean is 1.01, and the current reading sits 2.8 standard deviations above that average. The z-score of 2.83 marks one of the most extreme bearish-leaning option flows in recent weeks. Over the past 52 weeks the PCR has ranged from 0.90 to 1.37.
Ten firms raised targets in the past two days following earnings. The mean price target now stands at $304, implying 13.5% upside from Thursday's close.
TD Cowen's Krish Sankar led the charge Wednesday, lifting his target from $290 to $340 while maintaining a Buy rating. Bank of America's Vivek Arya hiked his target to $330 from $285, also keeping a Buy. Stifel's Brian Chin moved to $325 from $300, maintaining Buy.
JP Morgan's Harlan Sur raised his target to $315 from $300, maintaining Overweight. Citigroup's Atif Malik and RBC Capital's Srini Pajjuri both went to $315 and $310, respectively, from $300 and $290. Wells Fargo's Joseph Quatrochi moved to $320 from $290.
Barclays' Tom O'Malley remains the lone Equal-Weight rating in the group, but he too raised his target to $275 from $255.
The trailing P/E ratio stands at 40.9, down 3.9 points on the day and 4.7 points over the past week. That multiple contracted 0.15 points over the past month. Price-to-book sits at 24.2, down 0.98 on the day but up 0.64 over 30 days. EV/EBITDA is 33.5, down 2.4 points Thursday and 5.0 points over the past month.
LRCX scores in the 85th percentile for 30-day EPS momentum and the 78th percentile for 90-day EPS momentum. The dividend score ranks in the 99th percentile. Short score percentile is 60, days-to-cover rank is 50, and utilisation rank is 72. The stock's sector score is 84.
BlackRock added 10.04 million shares in Q1 2026, bringing its position to 134.18 million shares, or 10.7% of the company. T. Rowe Price added 10.66 million shares to reach 13.70 million, or 1.1%. FMR (Fidelity) added 3.71 million shares, now holding 21.44 million, or 1.7%. Goldman Sachs added 2.01 million shares, now at 12.11 million, or 0.97%.
Norges Bank, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, added 1.83 million shares to its position, now holding 21.30 million shares, or 1.7%.
Insiders sold a net 408,166 shares over the past 90 days, valued at $94.8 million. CFO Douglas Bettinger accounted for the bulk, selling 131,348 shares across multiple transactions in late February and early March for a combined $29.5 million. The largest single sale was 50,057 shares on March 4 at $224.03, worth $11.2 million.
CTO Vahid Vahedi sold 6,376 shares in late February for $1.5 million. Chief Legal Officer Ava Harter sold 8,699 shares for $2.0 million across three transactions. Senior Vice President Neil Fernandes sold 1,809 shares on February 27 at $233.89, valued at $423,107.
Lam has a history of volatile post-earnings moves. The stock last reported on April 22, 2026. Prior earnings releases also fell in April 2026, with the company reporting multiple times that month. Earlier, the stock reported on January 28, 2026. Historical reaction data for the past several prints is incomplete in the snapshot.
The next earnings event is scheduled for July 30, 2026. Analysts will be watching for commentary on DRAM revenue trends and customer mix, particularly exposure to China. Wafer fabrication equipment (WFE) demand and foundry spending remain key catalysts.
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