KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Hits New 12-Month High - Time to Buy?

Key Points

• 52‑week high: KLA shares reached a new 52‑week high of $1,696.92 on Thursday, reflecting strong recent momentum and a market capitalization around $220.5 billion.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly positive — 20 analysts rate the stock a Buy vs. 11 Holds, the consensus is a "Moderate Buy" with an average target of $1,607.64, and several firms have recently raised targets as high as $1,835 and upgraded to Buy.
• Fundamentals and shareholder actions: KLA beat quarterly estimates (EPS $8.85 vs. $8.75; revenue $3.30B vs. $3.25B), declared a $1.90 quarterly dividend (0.5% yield) and authorized a $7.0 billion share buyback (about 3.7% of shares).

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC - Get Free Report)'s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $1,693.80 and last traded at $1,696.9150, with a volume of 42203 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $1,672.34.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on KLAC. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $1,835.00 target price on KLA and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. New Street Research lifted their target price on KLA from $1,230.00 to $1,460.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. TD Cowen upgraded KLA from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $1,300.00 to $1,800.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Evercore boosted their price objective on KLA from $1,350.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Berenberg Bank boosted their price objective on KLA from $1,760.00 to $1,770.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, KLA presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $1,607.64.

KLA Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. The stock has a market cap of $220.49 billion, a PE ratio of 48.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a fifty day moving average of $1,473.91 and a 200-day moving average of $1,313.18.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.75 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $3.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 98.18% and a net margin of 35.76%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $8.20 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that KLA Corporation will post 31.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th were paid a dividend of $1.90 per share. This represents a $7.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 17th. KLA's payout ratio is presently 22.11%.

KLA declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, March 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $7.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to repurchase up to 3.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Westpac Banking Corp grew its stake in KLA by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 9,276 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $10,005,000 after purchasing an additional 932 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC grew its stake in KLA by 4,023.1% during the 4th quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,072 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $1,303,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046 shares in the last quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd acquired a new position in KLA during the 3rd quarter worth $133,209,000. BOKF NA grew its stake in KLA by 16.6% during the 3rd quarter. BOKF NA now owns 8,534 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $9,205,000 after purchasing an additional 1,218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its stake in KLA by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 69,563 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $74,898,000 after purchasing an additional 8,973 shares in the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.