KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $1,838.4815.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price target on KLA from $1,550.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Dbs Bank upgraded KLA from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on KLA from $1,700.00 to $2,000.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Evercore raised their price target on KLA from $1,350.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and set a $1,750.00 price target on shares of KLA in a research note on Thursday, April 30th.

Insider Activity at KLA

In other news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 4,512 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,794.00, for a total transaction of $8,094,528.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 75,895 shares in the company, valued at approximately $136,155,630. This trade represents a 5.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On KLA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Motco grew its stake in KLA by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Motco now owns 405 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $492,000 after purchasing an additional 7 shares during the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC grew its stake in KLA by 17.1% in the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 48 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 7 shares during the last quarter. SouthState Bank Corp grew its stake in KLA by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. SouthState Bank Corp now owns 111 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $135,000 after purchasing an additional 7 shares during the last quarter. West Michigan Advisors LLC grew its stake in KLA by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. West Michigan Advisors LLC now owns 305 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $371,000 after purchasing an additional 8 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in KLA by 3.4% in the third quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 271 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 9 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about KLA

Here are the key news stories impacting KLA this week:

• Positive Sentiment: KLA continues to be viewed as a major beneficiary of AI chip investment, with demand for process-control and inspection tools supporting growth and backlog visibility.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary says KLA is “quietly dominating” the 2nm hyperscaler race, reinforcing the bullish long-term demand narrative for semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: KLA’s recent quarterly report topped expectations, with earnings and revenue both ahead of consensus, which supports the stock’s fundamental backdrop. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: The company is set to complete a 10-for-1 stock split, which can increase trading activity and attract retail interest, but does not change underlying fundamentals. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: There was also an article highlighting a recent insider share sale, but it was small relative to KLA’s market capitalization and does not by itself signal a major shift in the outlook. Article Title

KLA Price Performance

NASDAQ:KLAC opened at $1,804.32 on Wednesday. KLA has a twelve month low of $740.44 and a twelve month high of $1,939.36. The company has a market cap of $235.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.50. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,643.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1,439.56. The company has a current ratio of 3.03, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01.

Shares of KLA are set to split on Friday, June 12th. The 10-1 split was announced on Thursday, May 7th. The newly created shares will be distributed to shareholders after the closing bell on Thursday, June 11th.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $9.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $9.17 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $3.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.37 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 91.89% and a net margin of 35.66%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $8.41 earnings per share. KLA has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 8.870-10.870 EPS. Analysts anticipate that KLA will post 37.06 EPS for the current year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 18th will be paid a dividend of $2.30 per share. This is an increase from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.90. This represents a $9.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 18th. KLA’s payout ratio is 21.51%.

KLA declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, March 12th that permits the company to buyback $7.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the semiconductor company to reacquire up to 3.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.