KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Stock Rating Lowered by Zacks Research

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) was downgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on KLAC. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price target on KLA from $1,300.00 to $1,400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on KLA from $1,600.00 to $1,900.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. New Street Research raised their target price on shares of KLA from $1,315.00 to $1,460.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Evercore lifted their price target on shares of KLA from $1,350.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Berenberg Bank boosted their price target on shares of KLA from $1,760.00 to $1,770.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, KLA has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,602.29.

KLA Stock Performance

KLAC stock opened at $1,482.36 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $1,470.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $1,252.96. KLA has a fifty-two week low of $551.33 and a fifty-two week high of $1,693.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $194.31 billion, a PE ratio of 43.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.45.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.85 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.75 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $3.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 98.18% and a net margin of 35.76%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $8.20 EPS. Analysts forecast that KLA will post 31.59 EPS for the current year.

KLA declared that its board has initiated 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 purchase up to 3.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of KLA

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Close Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in KLA during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $133,209,000. Winslow Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in KLA in the second quarter valued at approximately $95,217,000. Achmea Investment Management B.V. raised its holdings in KLA by 6.2% in the third quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 104,507 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $112,721,000 after purchasing an additional 6,109 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S raised its holdings in KLA by 5.8% in the third quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 101,382 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $109,351,000 after purchasing an additional 5,586 shares during the period. Finally, Loomis Sayles & Co. L P boosted its position in shares of KLA by 5,697.9% during the second quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 97,231 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $87,094,000 after purchasing an additional 95,554 shares in the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is currently 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.