KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Hits New 1-Year High – What’s Next?

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $2,158.00 and last traded at $2,168.40, with a volume of 8693 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $2,108.06.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KLAC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised 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. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on KLA from $1,600.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on KLA from $1,600.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on KLA from $1,800.00 to $2,064.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Berenberg Bank raised their target price on shares of KLA from $1,770.00 to $2,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,842.19.

KLA Stock Performance

The stock has a fifty day moving average of $1,795.46 and a 200-day moving average of $1,523.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $292.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.71, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 3.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01.

Shares of KLA are scheduled to split before the market opens on Friday, June 12th. The 10-1 split was announced on Thursday, May 7th. The newly issued shares will be issued to shareholders after the market closes on Thursday, June 11th.

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

KLA Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th were given a $2.30 dividend. This represents a $9.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. This is an increase from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.90. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 18th. KLA’s payout ratio is 26.04%.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 4,512 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owned 75,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $136,155,630. This represents a 5.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On KLA

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Union Heritage Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of KLA in the 1st quarter valued at about $4,152,000. McIlrath & Eck LLC raised its holdings in KLA by 6.8% in the 1st quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 94 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $139,000 after acquiring an additional 6 shares during the period. Orographic Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of KLA during the first quarter worth approximately $390,000. Kentucky Retirement Systems increased its position in KLA by 64.7% during the 1st quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems now owns 13,759 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $20,259,000 after buying an additional 5,404 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Investment Advisors MI increased its position in KLA by 5.1% during the first quarter. Strategic Investment Advisors MI now owns 2,225 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,280,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

About KLA

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.