New Street Research Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Stock

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) had its price objective hoisted by analysts at New Street Research from $1,230.00 to $1,315.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,MarketScreener reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the semiconductor company’s stock. New Street Research’s price objective suggests a potential downside of 13.07% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on KLAC. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded KLA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $1,100.00 to $1,500.00 in a report on Monday, December 15th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $1,600.00 price target on shares of KLA and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Citic Securities upped their price target on shares of KLA from $950.00 to $1,350.00 in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of KLA to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on KLA from $1,500.00 to $1,750.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, KLA currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,454.43.

KLA Price Performance

KLA stock opened at $1,512.78 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.69 and a quick ratio of 1.88. The stock has a market cap of $198.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 1.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $1,280.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $1,102.42. KLA has a 1 year low of $551.33 and a 1 year high of $1,581.34.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.47 by $0.34. The firm had revenue of $3.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.17 billion. KLA had a net margin of 33.83% and a return on equity of 107.26%. The company’s revenue was up 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $7.33 earnings per share. KLA has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 7.920-9.480 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that KLA will post 31.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 10,803 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,203.10, for a total value of $12,997,089.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 81,211 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $97,704,954.10. This trade represents a 11.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 2,254 shares of KLA stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,237.01, for a total transaction 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 $39,774,819.54. This trade represents a 6.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Ulland Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of KLA during the second quarter worth about $32,000. Sentry Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in KLA during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Arlington Trust Co LLC lifted its stake in KLA by 125.0% during the 3rd quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 36 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of KLA in the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of KLA in the third quarter worth $43,000. 86.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.