KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Stock Price Down 8.8% – Should You Sell?

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) shares traded down 8.8% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $243.80 and last traded at $245.4670. Approximately 1,547,274 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 10,990,182 shares. The stock had previously closed at $269.16.

Key Stories Impacting KLA

Here are the key news stories impacting KLA this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wells Fargo raised its price target on KLA Corporation to $305 from $210 and kept an Overweight rating, citing expectations for continued strength in semi-cap results in the second quarter. Wells Fargo Raises its Price Target on KLA Corporation (KLAC)
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America also lifted its KLA price target to $317 from $210 and reiterated a Buy rating, reinforcing Wall Street’s bullish view on the stock’s longer-term upside.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst commentary from Zacks compared KLA with Applied Materials, noting KLA’s premium valuation after a sharp rally, which may keep investor expectations elevated but does not change the company’s operating outlook.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on KLAC. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on KLA from $170.00 to $191.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of KLA from $210.00 to $317.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of KLA from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Argus boosted their target price on shares of KLA from $175.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of KLA from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, KLA has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $351.26.

KLA Stock Down 2.1%

The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $200.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $163.21. The company has a market capitalization of $312.70 billion, a PE ratio of 67.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 3.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01.

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

KLA Cuts Dividend

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

KLA announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, March 12th that permits the company to buyback $7.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the semiconductor company to repurchase up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at KLA

In other news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 45,120 shares of KLA stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 11th. The stock was 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 approximately $157,996,990.71. The trade was a 5.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 91.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On KLA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Monetary Management Group Inc. increased its stake in KLA by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Monetary Management Group Inc. now owns 3,773 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,380,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the period. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in KLA by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,043 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $934,000 after purchasing an additional 16 shares during the last quarter. WFA of San Diego LLC purchased a new stake in shares of KLA during the 2nd quarter worth about $90,000. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of KLA by 13.8% during the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 5,118 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,584,000 after buying an additional 619 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of KLA by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,390 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,499,000 after buying an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

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.