Evercore ISI Boosts KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Price Target to $1,700.00

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) had its price target increased by Evercore ISI from $1,350.00 to $1,700.00 in a report issued on Monday,MarketScreener reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the semiconductor company’s stock. Evercore ISI’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 12.38% from the company’s previous close.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on KLA from $1,260.00 to $1,600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. UBS Group boosted their target price on KLA from $1,260.00 to $1,635.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Bank of America upped their price target on KLA from $1,450.00 to $1,650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $1,600.00 price objective on shares of KLA and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of KLA to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,477.64.

KLA Stock Performance

Shares of KLA stock opened at $1,512.78 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $1,280.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $1,104.97. KLA has a 12 month low of $551.33 and a 12 month high of $1,581.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.50, a PEG ratio of 3.63 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.69 and a quick ratio of 1.88.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.47 by $0.34. KLA had a net margin of 33.83% and a return on equity of 107.26%. The company had revenue of $3.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.17 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $7.33 earnings per share. KLA’s quarterly revenue was up 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. KLA has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 7.920-9.480 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that KLA will post 31.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at KLA

In related news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 10,803 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,203.10, for a total value of $12,997,089.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 81,211 shares in the company, valued at $97,704,954.10. This trade represents a 11.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 2,254 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was 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 directly owned 32,154 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,774,819.54. This represents a 6.55% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 91.48% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On KLA

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of KLA by 86.6% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 4,063 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,937,000 after purchasing an additional 1,886 shares during the last quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. grew its holdings in KLA by 95.0% during the 4th quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. now owns 78 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $95,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Argus Investors Counsel Inc. grew its holdings in KLA by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Argus Investors Counsel Inc. now owns 764 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $928,000 after buying an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Newman Dignan & Sheerar Inc. increased its position in KLA by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Newman Dignan & Sheerar Inc. now owns 1,208 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,468,000 after buying an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of KLA by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,206 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,466,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

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.