KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Shares Up 8.2% – What’s Next?

Shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) shot up 8.2% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $255.87 and last traded at $258.3230. Approximately 2,253,092 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 79% from the average daily volume of 10,868,529 shares. The stock had previously closed at $238.73.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on KLAC. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of KLA from $187.50 to $197.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of KLA from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of KLA from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. New Street Research raised their price target on shares of KLA from $146.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of KLA from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $342.44.

KLA Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $339.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 73.47, a P/E/G ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 3.03 and a quick ratio of 2.11. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $195.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $160.14.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $9.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $8.48. KLA had a net margin of 35.66% and a return on equity of 91.89%. The company had revenue of $3.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. KLA has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 8.870-10.870 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that KLA Corporation will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA Cuts 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 dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 18th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.06%.

KLA declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, March 12th that allows the company to buyback $7.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the semiconductor company to buy up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 45,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $221.34, for a total value of $9,986,725.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 713,830 shares in the company, valued at approximately $157,996,990.71. This represents a 5.95% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of KLA

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Basepoint Wealth LLC bought a new stake in KLA in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of KLA during the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Triumph Capital Management bought a new position in shares of KLA during the third quarter valued at $40,000. Aventura Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of KLA in the 4th quarter valued at $55,000. Finally, Nemes Rush Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of KLA by 17.1% in the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 48 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 7 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

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.