KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Stock Price Up 9.5% – Here’s What Happened

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC)’s share price rose 9.5% on Monday . The stock traded as high as $2,089.50 and last traded at $2,112.9510. Approximately 268,019 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 75% from the average daily volume of 1,058,592 shares. The stock had previously closed at $1,929.20.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on KLAC. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of KLA from $1,800.00 to $2,064.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of KLA from $1,505.00 to $1,550.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their price objective on shares of KLA from $1,400.00 to $1,865.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Citic Securities upped their price target on shares of KLA from $1,350.00 to $1,970.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of KLA from $1,700.00 to $2,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, KLA has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,842.19.

KLA Trading Up 9.6%

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $1,782.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $1,516.97. The company has a current ratio of 3.03, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. The company has a market cap of $276.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.02, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.50.

Shares of KLA are scheduled to split on the morning of Friday, June 12th. The 10-1 split was announced on Thursday, May 7th. The newly minted shares will be payable to shareholders after the closing bell on Thursday, June 11th.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $9.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.17 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $3.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.37 billion. KLA had a net margin of 35.66% and a return on equity of 91.89%. KLA’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $8.41 EPS. KLA has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 8.870-10.870 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that KLA Corporation will post 37.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th were given a dividend of $2.30 per share. This is a positive change from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.90. This represents a $9.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 18th. KLA’s payout ratio is 26.04%.

KLA declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, March 12th that allows the company to buyback $7.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the semiconductor company to repurchase up to 3.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 4,512 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,794.00, for a total transaction of $8,094,528.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 75,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $136,155,630. This trade represents a 5.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On KLA

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Union Heritage Capital LLC bought a new position in KLA in the 1st quarter valued at about $4,152,000. McIlrath & Eck LLC increased its holdings in KLA by 6.8% in the 1st quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 94 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $139,000 after buying an additional 6 shares during the period. Orographic Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in KLA in the 1st quarter valued at about $390,000. Kentucky Retirement Systems boosted its stake in shares of KLA by 64.7% in the 1st quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems now owns 13,759 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $20,259,000 after purchasing an additional 5,404 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Investment Advisors MI boosted its stake in shares of KLA by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. Strategic Investment Advisors MI now owns 2,225 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,280,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares in the last quarter. 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.