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Technology Stocks : Lam Research (LRCX, NASDAQ): To the Insiders -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kirk © who wrote (5461)	3/15/2006 5:23:58 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 5867

Lam Research upgraded by Credit Suisse Briefing.com (Wed 1:52pm)

To: Kirk © who wrote (5461)	3/21/2006 3:50:57 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 5867

Lam moves beyond 'one-hit wonder' tag Mark LaPedus EE Times (03/21/2006 1:22 PM EST) SAN JOSE, Calif. — Tired of being a one-hit wonder in semiconductor equipment, Lam Research Corp. is planning a major thrust into at least three new product markets — dry strip, patterning and wafer cleaning, according to a report from SG Cowen Securities Corp. on Tuesday (March 21). Lam’s new wafer cleaning tool is due out in 2007, while the company appears to be in the R&D stage with the other products, according to the investment banking firm. Lam (Fremont, Calif.) mainly participates in the plasma etch market, where the chip-equipment maker is the leader in the metal etch segment with about 43-to-44 percent share, according to SG Cowen (New York). However, the company has experienced little success in developing new products beyond etch. In 2004 Lam bailed out of the competitive chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) tool market. Some analysts believe that Lam must expand beyond its core etch niche. The plasma etch market is limited and the competition is fierce. “The company faces some headwinds of slowing equipment orders in the second half of 2006 and increased competition from Tokyo Electron, but we believe Lam can continue to take share in both existing and new markets,” said Mark Bachman, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities Inc. (Portland, Ore., in a recent report. For some time, Lam has been talking about an effort to enter the growing but fragmented wafer cleaning market. And during an analyst meeting at the Semicon China trade show this week, Lam revealed more detail about its new product efforts. The company’s wafer cleaning tool is due out in 2007 and targeted for the 45-nm node, said Raj Seth, an analyst with SG Cowen, in the report. “Other new products include a standalone strip tool for the post implant strip and a patterning tool used to extend the resolution of lithography tools,” Seth said. No other product details were given in the report. Lam is also expanding its efforts in etch, as the company is looking to gain share in the dielectric segment, he said. At Semicon China, Lam executives reiterated the company’s previous guidance, which calls for March orders and shipments to grow 25-to-30 percent and 30 percent sequentially, respectively, according to the report. Semiconductor equipment supplier Lam in January reported a net income of $77.8 million on revenue of $358.2 million for its fiscal 2006 second quarter. Both numbers were up sequentially from the fiscal first quarter of 2006, but down from the company's performance for the same period the previous year.

To: Kirk © who wrote (5461)	3/22/2006 8:02:53 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 5867

14:54 LRCX Lam Research: Color on analyst day (42.90 -0.19) Thomas Weisel notes that LRCX hosted an Analyst Day earlier today, March 21. Firm says that as expected, March qtr guidance was unchanged: orders of $504-524 mln, revs of $410-430 mln, and EPS of $0.57-0.63 (including stock-based compensation). The firm sees modest upside to their rev and EPS ests of $421 mln and $0.60, respectively. Relative to its semi cap equipment peers, LRCX offers a comparatively strong, product-driven, long-term growth outlook and a superior margin structure, in their view. Firm says that despite this comparatively favorable profile, LRCX continues to trade at a discount to its peer group on a P/E basis, and in their view gives the co an attractive valuation. The firm says that they came away from the meeting incrementally more confident in the co's ability to seize growth opportunities in the $3 b/n etch segment and expect the co to achieve its objective of growing mkt share from 40% in CY05 to 43-44% in CY06. Although they had hoped to gain more technical insight into the co's new wafer clean tool, they remain positive on the broader growth story and reiterate their Outperform rating.