Wolfe Research Raises KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Price Target to $2,000.00

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) had its price target increased by analysts at Wolfe Research from $1,800.00 to $2,000.00 in a report released on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the semiconductor company’s stock. Wolfe Research’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 15.08% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Barclays increased their target price on KLA from $1,595.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price objective on KLA from $1,300.00 to $1,400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $1,835.00 price objective on KLA and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Evercore raised their price objective on KLA from $1,350.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered KLA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 16th. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, KLA has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,614.79.

KLA Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ:KLAC opened at $1,737.89 on Friday. KLA has a 1 year low of $607.70 and a 1 year high of $1,759.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $227.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.00. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $1,480.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $1,322.43.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.75 by $0.10. KLA had a return on equity of 98.18% and a net margin of 35.76%.The firm had revenue of $3.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $8.20 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that KLA will post 31.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA declared that its Board of Directors has authorized 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 reacquire up to 3.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Amicus Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of KLA during the 4th quarter worth $211,000. BNB Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of KLA during the 4th quarter worth $1,460,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of KLA by 31.4% during the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 91,413 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $111,910,000 after acquiring an additional 21,850 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in shares of KLA by 237.8% during the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 17,055 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $20,723,000 after acquiring an additional 12,006 shares during the period. Finally, Abound Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of KLA during the 4th quarter worth $241,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

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.