Cantor Fitzgerald Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Stock

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) had its target price hoisted by investment analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald from $1,850.00 to $2,000.00 in a research report issued on Monday,MarketScreener reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the semiconductor company’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 30.71% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on KLAC. Citigroup raised their price target on KLA from $1,450.00 to $1,800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on KLA from $1,800.00 to $1,900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price objective on shares of KLA from $1,300.00 to $1,400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $1,835.00 price objective on KLA and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of KLA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 16th. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,607.64.

KLA Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:KLAC traded up $57.71 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $1,530.12. The stock had a trading volume of 105,112 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,117,996. KLA has a 1 year low of $551.33 and a 1 year high of $1,693.35. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $1,474.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1,292.47. The company has a market capitalization of $200.57 billion, a PE ratio of 44.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.45.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.75 by $0.10. KLA had a net margin of 35.76% and a return on equity of 98.18%. The firm had revenue of $3.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $8.20 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that KLA will post 31.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, March 12th that allows the company to repurchase $7.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the semiconductor company to purchase up to 3.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Amicus Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in KLA during the fourth quarter worth about $211,000. BNB Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of KLA in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,460,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew 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 purchasing an additional 21,850 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors grew 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 purchasing an additional 12,006 shares during the period. Finally, Abound Financial LLC acquired a new stake in KLA during the 4th quarter worth approximately $241,000. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.