KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Hits New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $1,317.94 and last traded at $1,341.8020, with a volume of 7277 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $1,274.47.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on KLAC. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of KLA from $900.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of KLA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $1,100.00 to $1,500.00 in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their price objective on KLA from $1,100.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on KLA from $1,170.00 to $1,350.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on KLA from $1,000.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,275.54.

KLA Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $183.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.80, a PEG ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.69 and a quick ratio of 1.88. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $1,210.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1,053.16.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.47 by $0.34. KLA had a return on equity of 107.26% and a net margin of 33.83%.The business had revenue of $3.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.17 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $7.33 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. KLA has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 7.920-9.480 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that KLA Corporation will post 31.59 earnings per share for the current year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th were issued a dividend of $1.90 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 17th. This represents a $7.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.86%.

Insider Activity

In other KLA news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 10,803 shares of KLA stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,203.10, for a total transaction of $12,997,089.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 81,211 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $97,704,954.10. The trade was a 11.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 2,254 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,237.01, for a total transaction of $2,788,220.54. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 32,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,774,819.54. This represents a 6.55% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 91.48% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On KLA

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Ulland Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in KLA during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Sentry Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of KLA in the second quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Arlington Trust Co LLC raised its stake in shares of KLA by 125.0% during the third quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 36 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of KLA during the third quarter worth $40,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new position in KLA in the 3rd quarter valued at $43,000. 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.