Citic Securities Issues Positive Forecast for KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Stock Price

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) had its price objective upped by Citic Securities from $1,350.00 to $1,970.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,MarketScreener reports. Citic Securities’ target price indicates a potential upside of 9.95% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of KLA from $1,505.00 to $1,550.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Dbs Bank upgraded KLA from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 9th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on KLA from $1,700.00 to $1,910.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on KLA from $1,700.00 to $2,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of KLA in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Twenty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, KLA currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,821.26.

KLA Price Performance

KLAC opened at $1,791.70 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $1,591.09 and a 200 day moving average of $1,401.00. The stock has a market cap of $234.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.84, a PEG ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 3.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. KLA has a 52-week low of $675.27 and a 52-week high of $1,939.36.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $9.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $9.17 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $3.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $8.41 earnings per share. KLA has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 8.870-10.870 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that KLA will post 37 EPS for the current year.

KLA announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, March 12th that allows the company to repurchase $7.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the semiconductor company to buy up to 3.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On KLA

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KLAC. Basepoint Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in KLA in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Arlington Trust Co LLC raised its position in shares of KLA by 125.0% in the 3rd quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 36 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new stake in KLA in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in KLA in the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new stake in KLA during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $43,000. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.