The Goldman Sachs Group Increases KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Price Target to $1,550.00

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) had its price target lifted by research analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $1,505.00 to $1,550.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,MarketScreener reports. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the semiconductor company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective would suggest a potential downside of 10.21% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on KLAC. New Street Research raised their price objective on KLA from $1,460.00 to $1,770.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price target on KLA from $1,300.00 to $1,400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on KLA from $1,800.00 to $2,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their price target on KLA from $1,550.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $2,000.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a report on Thursday. Twenty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, KLA has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,798.30.

KLA Trading Down 1.4%

NASDAQ KLAC opened at $1,726.26 on Thursday. KLA has a 52 week low of $675.27 and a 52 week high of $1,939.36. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $1,586.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $1,391.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 3.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. The firm has a market cap of $226.28 billion, a PE ratio of 48.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.29 and a beta of 1.50.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $9.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $9.17 by $0.23. KLA had a net margin of 35.66% and a return on equity of 91.89%. The company had revenue of $3.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.37 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $8.41 earnings per share. KLA’s revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. KLA has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 8.870-10.870 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that KLA will post 36.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, March 12th that permits the company to repurchase $7.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the semiconductor company to repurchase up to 3.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On KLA

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of KLAC. Close Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in KLA during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $133,209,000. PFA Pension Forsikringsaktieselskab acquired a new stake in shares of KLA in the fourth quarter worth $119,618,000. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its holdings in shares of KLA by 69.1% during the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 87,547 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $94,422,000 after purchasing an additional 35,770 shares during the last quarter. Pinebridge Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of KLA during the fourth quarter worth $32,812,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in KLA by 418.1% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 29,227 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $31,524,000 after purchasing an additional 23,586 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

KLA News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting KLA this week:

• Positive Sentiment: PineStone Asset Management opened a large new position in KLAC — about $151.7M worth of shares reported in a recent 13F, signalling institutional conviction and incremental demand for the stock. PineStone opens new $151.7M KLAC position
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple sell?side firms raised price targets (Needham, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan, Stifel, Berenberg, Argus among others), lifting medium?term analyst sentiment and signaling upside to consensus. This supports longer-term conviction despite near-term volatility. Stifel raises KLAC price target
• Neutral Sentiment: KLA reported Q3 results that beat EPS and revenue estimates and issued above?consensus guidance tied to AI?driven chip demand — a fundamental positive, but one that already appears partly baked into expectations. Q3 earnings transcript / results
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the beat and bullish guidance, the stock fell after the release as some investors/analysts said the outlook or cadence didn’t clear a higher bar — short?term disappointment drove selling. Stock tumbles after earnings despite beat
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: recent open?market sales by the CEO and CFO (multi?million dollar disposals) add to near?term selling pressure and may worry some investors about timing of exits. QuiverQuant fund & insider update

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.