KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Raised to “Moderate Buy” at Dbs Bank

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) was upgraded by equities researchers at Dbs Bank from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Evercore upped their price target on shares of KLA from $1,350.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,750.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a report on Friday, January 30th. Barclays upped their target price on KLA from $1,595.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. UBS Group set a $1,575.00 price target on KLA in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of KLA from $1,400.00 to $1,800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,601.04.

KLA Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ KLAC opened at $1,452.94 on Monday. KLA has a 52 week low of $551.33 and a 52 week high of $1,693.35. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $1,452.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $1,231.69. The company has a quick ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. The firm has a market cap of $190.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.45.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.75 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $3.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. KLA had a net margin of 35.76% and a return on equity of 98.18%. KLA’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $8.20 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that KLA will post 31.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 2,254 shares of KLA stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were 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. The trade was a 6.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 91.48% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On KLA

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in KLAC. Close Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in KLA in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $133,209,000. Winslow Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in KLA during the second quarter worth about $95,217,000. Achmea Investment Management B.V. lifted its position in shares of KLA by 6.2% during the third quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 104,507 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $112,721,000 after purchasing an additional 6,109 shares in the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S boosted its position in KLA by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 101,382 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $109,351,000 after buying an additional 5,586 shares during the period. Finally, Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its stake in KLA by 5,697.9% during the 2nd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 97,231 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $87,094,000 after purchasing an additional 95,554 shares in the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.