KLA’s (KLAC) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $1,800.00 target price on the semiconductor company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 26.88% from the stock’s previous close.

KLAC has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of KLA from $1,800.00 to $1,900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating on shares of KLA in a research note on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on KLA from $1,600.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Berenberg Bank boosted their price objective on KLA from $1,760.00 to $1,770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of KLA in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,602.29.

KLA Stock Up 0.6%

KLAC opened at $1,418.64 on Monday. KLA has a 1-year low of $551.33 and a 1-year high of $1,693.35. The business has a 50 day moving average of $1,464.40 and a 200-day moving average of $1,243.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $185.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $8.20 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that KLA will post 31.59 earnings per share for the current year.

KLA declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, March 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $7.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to reacquire up to 3.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 2,254 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,237.01, for a total value of $2,788,220.54. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 32,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,774,819.54. The trade was a 6.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 91.48% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in KLAC. Westpac Banking Corp increased its position in shares of KLA by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 9,276 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $10,005,000 after purchasing an additional 932 shares in the last quarter. Dorsey Wright & Associates acquired a new position in KLA in the second quarter valued at about $292,000. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments boosted its position in KLA by 631.6% in the second quarter. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments now owns 15,290 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $13,603,000 after buying an additional 13,200 shares in the last quarter. Oak Associates Ltd. OH grew its stake in KLA by 1.7% during the second quarter. Oak Associates Ltd. OH now owns 90,116 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $80,721,000 after buying an additional 1,504 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Close Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of KLA during the third quarter worth approximately $133,209,000. 86.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.