Argus Issues Positive Forecast for KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Stock Price

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) had its target price increased by Argus from $1,750.00 to $1,950.00 in a report released on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. Argus currently has a buy rating on the semiconductor company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on KLAC. Susquehanna raised their price objective on KLA from $1,600.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays raised their price objective on KLA from $1,595.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on KLA from $1,600.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Wolfe Research lifted their price target on KLA from $1,800.00 to $2,000.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on KLA from $1,800.00 to $2,000.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, KLA has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,798.30.

KLA Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:KLAC traded down $24.09 during trading on Friday, hitting $1,726.26. The stock had a trading volume of 789,025 shares, compared to its average volume of 875,407. KLA has a 12-month low of $675.27 and a 12-month high of $1,939.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.29 and a beta of 1.50. 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 stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $1,586.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1,391.30.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $3.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.37 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $8.41 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. KLA has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 8.870-10.870 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that KLA will post 36.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th were given a dividend of $1.90 per share. This represents a $7.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 17th. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.51%.

KLA declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan 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 plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of KLA

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Close Asset Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of KLA in the third quarter valued at approximately $133,209,000. Achmea Investment Management B.V. increased its position in shares of KLA by 6.2% in the third quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 104,507 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $112,721,000 after buying an additional 6,109 shares in the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S increased its position in shares of 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 valued at $109,351,000 after buying an additional 5,586 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC increased its position in shares of KLA by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC now owns 96,846 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $117,676,000 after buying an additional 374 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PFA Pension Forsikringsaktieselskab purchased a new stake in shares of KLA in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $119,618,000. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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

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.