KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Given New $274.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) had its target price hoisted by Morgan Stanley from $190.00 to $274.00 in a report released on Monday morning, MarketBeat reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the semiconductor company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on KLAC. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $218.00 target price (up from $177.00) on shares of KLA in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of KLA from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Wolfe Research upped their price objective on KLA from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $325.00 price target on shares of KLA and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $275.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Twenty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $280.34.

KLA Stock Performance

KLAC traded down $17.81 on Monday, reaching $215.50. The company had a trading volume of 1,826,442 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,458,071. The stock has a market cap of $281.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 60.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 3.03. KLA has a fifty-two week low of $83.22 and a fifty-two week high of $307.37. The company’s fifty day moving average is $213.01 and its 200 day moving average is $170.82.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $9.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $8.48. The company had revenue of $3.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.37 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 91.89% and a net margin of 35.66%.The business’s revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. KLA has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 8.870-10.870 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that KLA will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA announced that its Board of Directors 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 repurchase up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

KLA Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th were given a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 18th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.06%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other KLA news, EVP Mary Beth Wilkinson sold 14,392 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.30, for a total value of $4,106,037.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 53,367 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,225,605.10. This trade represents a 21.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 45,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $221.34, for a total transaction of $9,986,725.44. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 713,830 shares in the company, valued at $157,996,990.71. This represents a 5.95% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 132,333 shares of company stock worth $29,547,170. Corporate insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Basepoint Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of KLA during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new position in KLA during the third quarter worth $40,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of KLA in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Aventura Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of KLA during the fourth quarter valued at about $55,000. Finally, Nemes Rush Group LLC increased its position in shares of KLA by 17.1% during the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 48 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 7 shares in the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.