KLA (KLAC) Stock Forecast, Price & News

KLA Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related nanoelectronics industries worldwide. The company offers chip and wafer manufacturing products, including defect inspection and review systems, metrology solutions, in situ process monitoring products, computational lithography software, and data analytics systems for chip manufacturers to manage yield throughout the semiconductor fabrication process. It also provides reticle manufacturing products, such as reticle inspection, metrology, and data analytics systems for mask shops; and packaging manufacturing products comprising wafer inspection and metrology, die sorting and inspection, IC component inspection and metrology, data analytics, wafer processing systems, and IC substrate production processes. In addition, the company offers compound semiconductor, power device, light emitting diode, and microelectromechanical system manufacturing products; data storage media/head manufacturing products; general purpose/lab applications; and previous-generation KLA systems. Further, it provides wafer processing solutions; printed circuit boards, and display and inspection components; and other services. The company was formerly known as KLA-Tencor Corporation and changed its name to KLA Corporation in July 2019. KLA Corporation was incorporated in 1975 and is headquartered in Milpitas, California.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on KLA from $400.00 to $375.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 15th. UBS Group decreased their target price on KLA from $360.00 to $345.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 28th. Barclays decreased their target price on KLA from $365.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 25th. KeyCorp raised their price target on KLA from $375.00 to $410.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, July 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on KLA from $437.00 to $344.00 in a report on Friday, July 15th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, KLA has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $425.16.

KLA Price Performance

Shares of KLAC Stock traded down $1.66 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $395.74. The stock had a trading volume of 1,213,816 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,327,597. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.07, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.33. KLA has a one year low of $282.83 and a one year high of $457.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.76, a current ratio of 2.50 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $340.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $346.77.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC - Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $5.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.46 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.42 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 95.80% and a net margin of 36.06%. The firm's revenue was up 29.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.43 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that KLA will post 24.83 EPS for the current year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 1st. Investors of record on Monday, August 15th will be given a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 12th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.31%. This is a positive change from KLA's previous quarterly dividend of $1.05. KLA's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 19.18%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 5,330 shares of KLA stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $383.11, for a total value of $2,041,976.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 52,145 shares in the company, valued at $19,977,270.95. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other KLA news, EVP Oreste Donzella sold 96 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $320.00, for a total transaction of $30,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 35,442 shares in the company, valued at $11,341,440. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 5,330 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $383.11, for a total value of $2,041,976.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 52,145 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $19,977,270.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 7,303 shares of company stock worth $2,739,490. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company's stock.