KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) Receives $218.41 Consensus PT from Analysts

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the thirty brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and twenty have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $219.1036.

Several research firms have issued reports on KLAC. Stifel Nicolaus set a $250.00 price objective on shares of KLA and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Citic Securities raised their target price on shares of KLA from $135.00 to $197.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and set a $195.00 target price (down from $220.00) on shares of KLA in a report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings cut shares of KLA from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price target on KLA from $140.00 to $186.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th.

Key KLA News

Here are the key news stories impacting KLA this week:

• Positive Sentiment: KLA reported fiscal fourth-quarter non-GAAP EPS of $1.05, ahead of the $1.00 consensus, while revenue rose 15.2% year over year to $3.66 billion. AI infrastructure, foundry and logic demand supported growth. KLAC Q4 Earnings Beat on AI Demand
• Positive Sentiment: Management guided fiscal first-quarter 2027 revenue to $3.8 billion-$4.2 billion and EPS to $1.06-$1.26, generally above Wall Street expectations and reflecting continued AI-related semiconductor equipment demand. KLA Corp forecasts upbeat quarter
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts maintained constructive views: JPMorgan raised its target to $238 with an Overweight rating, Needham reiterated Buy with a $270 target, Cantor Fitzgerald maintained Overweight with a $325 target, and Citi reiterated Buy with a $290 target. KLA guidance analyst commentary

KLA Stock Performance

NASDAQ KLAC opened at $170.19 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $222.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.41. KLA has a 1-year low of $83.22 and a 1-year high of $307.37. 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 business’s 50-day simple moving average is $223.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $181.22.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $3.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.61 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 91.38% and a net margin of 35.57%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.94 EPS. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. Equities analysts predict that KLA will post 5.06 EPS for the current year.

KLA Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 18th were given a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 18th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.06%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 27,701 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.69, for a total transaction of $7,359,878.69. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 263,472 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $70,001,875.68. The trade was a 9.51% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Mary Beth Wilkinson sold 14,392 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.30, for a total value of $4,106,037.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 53,367 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,225,605.10. This represents a 21.24% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 132,333 shares of company stock worth $29,547,170. 91.48% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of KLA

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Allied Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of KLA in the second quarter valued at $27,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in KLA by 900.0% during the 2nd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the period. Basepoint Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in KLA during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new position in KLA in the 3rd quarter worth $40,000. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in KLA in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.