KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Sets New 52-Week High – Should You Buy?

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $1,317.94 and last traded at $1,341.8020, with a volume of 7277 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $1,274.47.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on KLAC. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of KLA from $745.00 to $1,125.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Citic Securities raised their price objective on KLA from $950.00 to $1,350.00 in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their price objective on KLA from $1,100.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Evercore ISI raised their target price on KLA from $1,000.00 to $1,350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, New Street Research boosted their price target on shares of KLA from $980.00 to $1,230.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,275.54.

KLA Stock Up 5.8%

The company has a current ratio of 2.69, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. The company has a market cap of $177.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 1.45. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $1,203.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $1,045.94.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.47 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $3.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.17 billion. KLA had a net margin of 33.83% and a return on equity of 107.26%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $7.33 EPS. 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 year.

KLA Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 17th were paid a dividend of $1.90 per share. This represents a $7.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 17th. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.86%.

Insider Transactions at KLA

In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 2,254 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,237.01, for a total transaction of $2,788,220.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 32,154 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,774,819.54. This represents a 6.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 10,803 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 81,211 shares in the company, valued at $97,704,954.10. This trade represents 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 currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On KLA

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ulland Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of KLA during the second quarter valued at $32,000. Sentry Investment Management LLC bought a new position in KLA in the 2nd quarter worth $36,000. Arlington Trust Co LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new position in KLA during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new position in shares of KLA in the third quarter valued at about $43,000. 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.