KLAC vs. AMAT, LRCX, ENTG, ONTO, AMKR, MKSI, FORM, ACLS, AEIS, and VECO
Should you be buying KLA stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of KLA include Applied Materials (AMAT), Lam Research (LRCX), Entegris (ENTG), Onto Innovation (ONTO), Amkor Technology (AMKR), MKS Instruments (MKSI), FormFactor (FORM), Axcelis Technologies (ACLS), Advanced Energy Industries (AEIS), and Veeco Instruments (VECO). These companies are all part of the "semiconductor equipment" industry.
KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) and Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, profitability, earnings, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and dividends.
KLA currently has a consensus target price of $806.24, suggesting a potential upside of 2.39%. Applied Materials has a consensus target price of $224.84, suggesting a potential upside of 8.90%. Given Applied Materials' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Applied Materials is more favorable than KLA.
86.7% of KLA shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.6% of Applied Materials shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of KLA shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Applied Materials shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
KLA has a net margin of 28.15% compared to Applied Materials' net margin of 27.57%. KLA's return on equity of 106.27% beat Applied Materials' return on equity.
Applied Materials received 1112 more outperform votes than KLA when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.13% of users gave Applied Materials an outperform vote while only 62.55% of users gave KLA an outperform vote.
KLA has a beta of 1.27, meaning that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Applied Materials has a beta of 1.56, meaning that its share price is 56% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Applied Materials has higher revenue and earnings than KLA. Applied Materials is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than KLA, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, KLA had 33 more articles in the media than Applied Materials. MarketBeat recorded 45 mentions for KLA and 12 mentions for Applied Materials. Applied Materials' average media sentiment score of 1.16 beat KLA's score of 0.62 indicating that Applied Materials is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
KLA pays an annual dividend of $5.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Applied Materials pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. KLA pays out 30.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Applied Materials pays out 18.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Applied Materials is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
Applied Materials beats KLA on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding KLAC and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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