Lam Research (LRCX): Citi Raises Target by $135 on a Multi-Year Chip Manufacturing Investment Boom

Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) is one of the best fast growth stocks to buy according to hedge funds. On June 17, Citi raised its price target on Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) to $450 from $315, which was one among similar moves for several semiconductor equipment makers. The firm said the move was part of updating its global wafer fabrication equipment (WFE) spending forecasts to reflect what it sees as a multi-year boom in chip manufacturing investment.

In the revised WFE spending model, Citi, projects a bull-case spending of around $145 billion in 2026, which will rise to $200 billion in 2027, and top $250 billion in 2028.

Citi said it aligned its price targets for all three stocks to this revised WFE model and rolled them forward based on 2028 earnings power. In other words, the firm is increasingly confident that the investment cycle in chip manufacturing is a sustained, multi-year trend.

A key pillar of Citi’s revised model is the rise of agentic AI, which the firm said is driving a structural increase in demand for NAND flash memory. The analysts pointed out that there is a growing mismatch between how much memory the agentic AI systems need and how much is currently available.

Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) is a semiconductor equipment company. It designs, manufactures, and services wafer fabrication equipment used in the production of integrated circuits, including etch, deposition, and clean systems essential to advanced chip manufacturing.

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