KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Sets New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $2,158.00 and last traded at $2,168.40, with a volume of 8693 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $2,108.06.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of KLA from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of KLA from $1,875.00 to $1,975.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on KLA from $1,800.00 to $2,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on KLA from $1,900.00 to $2,100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on KLA from $1,700.00 to $1,910.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, KLA presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,842.19.

KLA Trading Up 6.1%

The company has a market cap of $292.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.50. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $1,795.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $1,523.91. 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 shares are set to split on the morning of Friday, June 12th. The 10-1 split was announced on Thursday, May 7th. The newly created shares will be payable to shareholders after the closing bell on Thursday, June 11th.

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

KLA Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th were paid a $2.30 dividend. This represents a $9.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 18th. This is a boost from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.90. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.04%.

KLA declared that its board has initiated 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other KLA news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 4,512 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 75,895 shares in the company, valued at $136,155,630. This 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 at the SEC website. 91.48% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of KLAC. Westpac Banking Corp lifted its position in 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 buying an additional 932 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of KLA by 4,023.1% during the fourth quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,072 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,303,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of KLA by 86.6% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 4,063 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,937,000 after purchasing an additional 1,886 shares during the last quarter. BOKF NA increased its holdings in shares of KLA by 16.6% in the third quarter. BOKF NA now owns 8,534 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $9,205,000 after purchasing an additional 1,218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Close Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of KLA in the third quarter valued at approximately $133,209,000. 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.