If You Invested $1000 in Lam Research 10 Years Ago, This Is How Much You'd Have Now

How much a stock's price changes over time is important for most investors, since price performance can both impact your investment portfolio and help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.The fear of missing out, or FOMO, also plays a factor in investing, especially with particular tech giants, as well as popular consumer-facing stocks.What if you'd invested in Lam Research (LRCX) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to LRCX for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?Lam Research's Business In-DepthWith that in mind, let's take a look at Lam Research's main business drivers.Headquartered in Fremont, CA, Lam Research Corporation supplies wafer fabrication equipment and services to the semiconductor industry. In addition, it serves the related markets that rely on semiconductor processes and require production-proven manufacturing capabilities, such as complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor image sensors and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS).Lam holds a strong position in deposition and etch, which address numerous critical steps in the fabrication process with the goal of reducing defect rates, improving yields, lowering costs and reducing the processing time. Its core competencies lie in areas such as nanoscale applications enablement, chemistry, plasma and fluidics, and advanced systems engineering.The company caters to the needs of semiconductor memory, foundry and integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) by providing them with integrating hardware, process, materials, software, and process control, enabling results on the wafer.The company also addresses back-end wafer-level packaging processes by offering advanced packaging solutions that support fan-out panel-level packaging, thus meeting the requirement for 3D stacking of high bandwidth memory (HBM).Lam Research reported revenues of $18.44 billion in fiscal 2025, up 24% from fiscal 2024. It serves three market segments — Memory, Foundry and Logic/Other from where it generated 42%, 45% and 13% of its total revenues in fiscal 2025, respectively.The company’s sales of new leading-edge equipment in deposition, etch and clean markets amount to its systems revenues, which stood at $11.49 billion (62% of fiscal 2025 total revenues). In addition, Lam’s Customer Support Business Group revenues comprise sales of customer service, spares, upgrades, and non-leading-edge equipment from Lam’s Reliant product line. Customer support-related revenues and other revenues were $6.94 billion (38% of fiscal 2025 total revenues).The revenue distribution by geography in fiscal 2025 was as follows: Korea contributed 22%, Taiwan 19%, Japan 10%, China 34%, the United States accounted for 7%, Europe 3% and South East Asia contributed 5%.Being a leading producer of specialized equipment, most of the competition comes from other large equipment makers, such as Hitachi, Tokyo Electron and Applied Materials. Bottom LineAnyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio requires research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in Lam Research, ten years ago, you're likely feeling pretty good about your investment today.According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in October 2015 would be worth $21,461.61, or a gain of 2,046.16%, as of October 16, 2025, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.In comparison, the S&P 500's gained 229.62% and the price of gold went up 244.38% over the same time frame.Looking ahead, analysts are expecting more upside for LRCX.Lam Research is riding on its strength across 3D DRAM and advanced packaging technologies. Growing etch and deposition intensity owing to increasing technology inflections in 3D architectures is a plus. A rebound in the System business due to improving memory spending is an upside. Strategic investments in research and development activities position it well to capitalize on the growing wafer fab equipment (WFE) spending. Foundry/logic, DRAM and NAND investments are expected to be higher year over year. Solid demand related to high-bandwidth memory is a plus. However, global spending on mature nodes is likely to remain soft in the near term. Growing trade and tariff tensions between the United States and China are a concern. Customer concentration risks and margin pressures from rising R&D investments are other headwinds.The stock is up 18.77% over the past four weeks, and no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 4 higher, for fiscal 2025. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.Free Report: Profiting from the 2nd Wave of AI ExplosionThe next phase of the AI explosion is poised to create significant wealth for investors, especially those who get in early. It will add literally trillion of dollars to the economy and revolutionize nearly every part of our lives.Investors who bought shares like Nvidia at the right time have had a shot at huge gains.But the rocket ride in the "first wave" of AI stocks may soon come to an end. The sharp upward trajectory of these stocks will begin to level off, leaving exponential growth to a new wave of cutting-edge companies.Zacks' AI Boom 2.0: The Second Wave report reveals 4 under-the-radar companies that may soon be shining stars of AI’s next leap forward.Access AI Boom 2.0 now, absolutely free >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Lam Research Corporation (LRCX): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks