Lam Research ( NASDAQ: LRCX ) shares rose on Thursday after the semiconductor capital equipment company reported first-quarter results that topped expectations and issued strong guidance, prompting investment firm Cowen to call the figures "impressive."
Cowen analyst Krish Sankar noted the results were strong despite the recently announced China export controls, which will impact the company's December quarter. The analyst also noted that Lam Research ( LRCX ) expects wafer fab equipment to decline 20% year-over-year, making the results all the more impressive, given the headwinds it is facing.
"With memory weakness well-understood and part of domestic China out of the numbers, we believe the set up for the stock is positive and Lam Research is well-positioned for future technology inflections," Sankar wrote in a note to clients.
Sankar added that the impact for Lam Research ( LRCX ) from the China export controls should be between $2B and $2.5B for 2023, given it had "good exposure" to Yangtze Memory Technologies and ChangXin Memory Technologies, both of which were negatively impacted by the controls.
However, Sankar posited that the political uncertainty facing Lam Research ( LRCX ) should make its shares "sufficiently de-risked."
Lam Research ( LRCX ) shares gained more than 2.5% to $338.64 in early trading, while competitors such as Applied Materials ( AMAT ), KLA Corp. ( KLAC ) and ASML Holding ( ASML ) also saw early gains.
Earlier this month, Bank of America said that Lam Research ( LRCX ) would be one of the companies most impacted by the new export controls .
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Lam Research rises after strong Q1, Q2 guidance, Cowen calls results 'impressive'