KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $1,842.1852.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on KLA from $1,875.00 to $1,975.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. New Street Research upped their price objective on KLA from $1,460.00 to $1,770.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Zacks Research lowered KLA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 16th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on KLA from $1,700.00 to $2,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $1,900.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a research note on Thursday, April 30th.

Insider Activity at KLA

In other news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 4,512 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,794.00, for a total transaction of $8,094,528.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 75,895 shares in the company, valued at $136,155,630. This trade represents a 5.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 91.48% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of KLA by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 180,279 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $265,444,000 after acquiring an additional 1,291 shares during the last quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of KLA in the 3rd quarter valued at about $133,209,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of KLA by 151.2% in the 1st quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 116,292 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $171,230,000 after acquiring an additional 70,000 shares during the last quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of KLA by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 104,507 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $112,721,000 after acquiring an additional 6,109 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of KLA by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC now owns 96,846 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $117,676,000 after acquiring an additional 374 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

KLA Price Performance

Shares of KLAC opened at $1,929.20 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.03, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. The firm has a market cap of $252.01 billion, a PE ratio of 54.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.50. KLA has a 1-year low of $799.77 and a 1-year high of $2,156.69. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,782.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1,514.29.

KLA’s stock is scheduled to split on Friday, June 12th. The 10-1 split was announced on Thursday, May 7th. The newly issued shares will be payable to shareholders after the closing bell on Thursday, June 11th.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $9.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $9.17 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $3.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.37 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 91.89% and a net margin of 35.66%.KLA’s revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $8.41 EPS. KLA has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 8.870-10.870 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that KLA will post 37.06 EPS for the current year.

KLA announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, March 12th that allows the company to repurchase $7.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the semiconductor company to buy up to 3.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

KLA Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 18th were paid a $2.30 dividend. This represents a $9.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 18th. This is a boost from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.90. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.04%.

KLA Company Profile

KLA is a provider of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related microelectronics industries. The company designs and manufactures equipment, software and services used by chipmakers to analyze and control manufacturing processes, detect defects, measure critical dimensions and improve yield across wafer fabrication, photomask and packaging operations. KLA’s offerings are aimed at enabling production of advanced logic, memory, and specialty devices at progressively smaller technology nodes and more complex package structures.

Its product portfolio includes optical and e-beam inspection systems, metrology tools for critical dimension and film measurement, mask and reticle inspection platforms, as well as enterprise software and data analytics that aggregate process data and drive automated process control.