KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Releases Q4 Earnings Guidance

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) issued an update on its fourth quarter earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $5.47-6.67 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $5.73. The company issued revenue guidance of $2.375-2.625 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $2.43 billion. KLA also updated its Q4 2024 guidance to 5.470-6.670 EPS.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KLAC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Raymond James reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $750.00 target price (up from $625.00) on shares of KLA in a report on Friday. Berenberg Bank boosted their price objective on shares of KLA from $670.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a neutral rating and issued a $675.00 target price on shares of KLA in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of KLA from $700.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of KLA from $605.00 to $760.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $720.42.

KLA Price Performance

Shares of KLAC stock traded up $33.31 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $706.26. The stock had a trading volume of 1,193,523 shares, compared to its average volume of 821,545. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.00, a PEG ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.34. KLA has a one year low of $369.00 and a one year high of $729.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.91 and a quick ratio of 1.25. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $685.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $599.79.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The semiconductor company reported $5.26 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.94 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.31 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 103.31% and a net margin of 27.19%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $5.49 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that KLA will post 22.61 EPS for the current year.

KLA Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Monday, February 19th were issued a dividend of $1.45 per share. This represents a $5.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. KLA’s payout ratio is 30.38%.

Insider Transactions at KLA

In related news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 7,018 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $705.04, for a total transaction of $4,947,970.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 32,375 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,825,670. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, EVP Oreste Donzella sold 3,257 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $697.85, for a total value of $2,272,897.45. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,922 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,809,017.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 7,018 shares of KLA stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $705.04, for a total value of $4,947,970.72. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 32,375 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,825,670. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

KLA Company Profile

KLA Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets process control, process-enabling, and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related electronics industries worldwide. It operates through three segments: Semiconductor Process Control; Specialty Semiconductor Process; and PCB, Display and Component Inspection.