KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Reaches New 1-Year High – Here’s What Happened

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $1,411.49 and last traded at $1,404.5330, with a volume of 67502 shares. The stock had previously closed at $1,400.00.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus set a $1,260.00 price target on shares of KLA in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of KLA in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Bank of America increased their price target on KLA from $1,000.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Citic Securities raised their price objective on KLA from $950.00 to $1,350.00 in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on KLA from $1,135.00 to $1,260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,305.35.

KLA Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $185.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.42, a PEG ratio of 3.73 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.88, a current ratio of 2.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. The company has a 50 day moving average of $1,218.98 and a 200 day moving average of $1,063.34.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.47 by $0.34. KLA had a return on equity of 107.26% and a net margin of 33.83%.The company had revenue of $3.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.17 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $7.33 EPS. KLA’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.0% compared to the same quarter last year. KLA has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 7.920-9.480 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that KLA Corporation will post 31.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, November 17th were issued a $1.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 17th. This represents a $7.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling at KLA

In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 2,254 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,237.01, for a total value of $2,788,220.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 32,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,774,819.54. The trade was a 6.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 10,803 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,203.10, for a total transaction of $12,997,089.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 81,211 shares in the company, valued at $97,704,954.10. The trade was a 11.74% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 91.48% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in KLAC. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in shares of KLA by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 188,735 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $169,056,000 after acquiring an additional 2,117 shares in the last quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd bought a new stake in KLA during the third quarter valued at $133,209,000. Winslow Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of KLA during the second quarter worth $95,217,000. Achmea Investment Management B.V. lifted its position in shares of KLA by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 104,507 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $112,721,000 after buying an additional 6,109 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S boosted its holdings in shares of KLA by 5.8% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.