KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Upgraded by Needham & Company LLC to Buy Rating

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) was upgraded by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Monday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage presently has a $750.00 price target on the semiconductor company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 9.80% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer raised KLA from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $750.00 to $850.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com cut KLA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on KLA from $960.00 to $900.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on KLA from $680.00 to $675.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $925.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $809.35.

KLA Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ KLAC opened at $683.06 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $650.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $728.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.48. KLA has a 1-year low of $549.63 and a 1-year high of $896.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $91.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.19, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.27.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The semiconductor company reported $7.33 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.03 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $2.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.75 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 105.16% and a net margin of 28.92%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $5.74 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that KLA will post 30.61 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of KLA

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in KLAC. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of KLA by 7.0% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 7,455 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $6,147,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of KLA by 6.1% in the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,015 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,661,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of KLA by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,811,766 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,318,329,000 after acquiring an additional 28,172 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of KLA by 8.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 691,039 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $569,758,000 after acquiring an additional 56,109 shares during the period. Finally, Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of KLA in the 2nd quarter valued at $794,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

KLA Company Profile

KLA Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of 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 and Component Inspection.