KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Price Target Raised to $1,460.00

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) had its target price hoisted by investment analysts at New Street Research from $1,230.00 to $1,460.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,MarketScreener reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the semiconductor company’s stock. New Street Research’s target price points to a potential downside of 4.58% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on KLAC. Dbs Bank upgraded KLA from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 9th. Berenberg Bank lifted 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. Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their price objective on shares of KLA from $1,300.00 to $1,400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of KLA in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of KLA from $1,600.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,607.64.

KLA Trading Up 3.9%

KLAC stock traded up $57.71 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $1,530.12. The company had a trading volume of 105,112 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,117,996. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.00. The company has a market capitalization of $200.57 billion, a PE ratio of 44.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.45. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $1,474.00 and a 200 day moving average of $1,292.47. KLA has a 12 month low of $551.33 and a 12 month high of $1,693.35.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.75 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $3.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. KLA had a net margin of 35.76% and a return on equity of 98.18%. The company’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $8.20 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that KLA will post 31.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, March 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $7.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to buy up to 3.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On KLA

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Close Asset Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of KLA during the third quarter valued at about $133,209,000. Winslow Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of KLA in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $95,217,000. Achmea Investment Management B.V. boosted its stake in KLA by 6.2% in the third quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 104,507 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $112,721,000 after acquiring an additional 6,109 shares in the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S grew its holdings in KLA by 5.8% in the third quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 101,382 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $109,351,000 after purchasing an additional 5,586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC increased its position in shares of KLA by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC now owns 96,846 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $117,676,000 after purchasing an additional 374 shares in the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.