UBS Group Has Lowered Expectations for KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Stock Price

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) had its price objective cut by UBS Group from $215.00 to $200.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the semiconductor company’s stock. UBS Group’s target price suggests a potential upside of 17.92% from the company’s current price.

KLAC has been the subject of a number of other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of KLA in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Citic Securities boosted their target price on shares of KLA from $135.00 to $197.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Susquehanna set a $215.00 target price on shares of KLA and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of KLA in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded KLA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $222.22.

KLA Trading Down 3.3%

Shares of KLAC opened at $169.61 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $221.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.45. KLA has a one year low of $83.22 and a one year high of $307.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.88. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $211.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $188.11.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.05. KLA had a return on equity of 87.66% and a net margin of 35.57%.The company had revenue of $3.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.61 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.94 EPS. KLA’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that KLA will post 5.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at KLA

In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 27,701 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.69, for a total transaction of $7,359,878.69. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 263,472 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $70,001,875.68. This represents a 9.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 87,568 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.95, for a total value of $17,421,653.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 778,944 shares in the company, valued at $154,970,908.80. The trade was a 10.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 258,533 shares of company stock worth $55,977,470. 91.48% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co grew its position in shares of KLA by 829.7% during the second quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co now owns 7,456 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,249,000 after acquiring an additional 6,654 shares during the last quarter. Abacus FCF Advisors LLC bought a new stake in KLA in the 2nd quarter valued at about $20,763,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in KLA in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,522,430,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its stake in KLA by 978.2% during the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 858,984 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $259,164,000 after purchasing an additional 779,317 shares during the period. Finally, Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. grew its position in KLA by 600.7% in the 2nd quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. now owns 31,561 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $9,522,000 after purchasing an additional 27,057 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

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.