By Sam Boughedda
Bernstein analysts downgraded Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) to Market Perform from Outperform with a $500 per share price target on Tuesday, telling investors the stock is now more expensive.
The note from Bernstein, covering the global semiconductor capital equipment sector, states that the firm is tweaking its CY2023 wafer fab equipment (WFE) forecast slightly upwards to $78 billion (still down 20% YoY), "mostly on more R&D from Samsung spends and strong backlog drawdown/ICAPS demand from AMAT."
"Samsung's WFE capacity spend will fall ~20% YoY, but R&D will rise to keep the total WFE spend flat. Memory remains the primary driver of this year's decline," wrote the analysts.
On LRCX, the analysts explained that the stock has been near its target price for some time, and due to the fact that Bernstein believes there remains "considerable uncertainty" around memory, the firm feels it is "prudent to move to the sidelines for now" although they "continue to like the longer-term story."