KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Rating Increased to Buy at Needham & Company LLC

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Needham & Company LLC from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a $750.00 target price on the semiconductor company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price suggests a potential upside of 6.95% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also commented on KLAC. StockNews.com lowered KLA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on KLA from $746.00 to $703.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of KLA from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $750.00 to $850.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of KLA from $800.00 to $750.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of KLA from $850.00 to $759.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $809.10.

KLA Stock Up 1.5 %

KLAC opened at $701.26 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $651.44 and a 200-day moving average of $726.56. The company has a market capitalization of $93.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.27. KLA has a fifty-two week low of $552.85 and a fifty-two week high of $896.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 2.13.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The semiconductor company reported $7.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $7.03 by $0.30. KLA had a net margin of 28.92% and a return on equity of 105.16%. The business had revenue of $2.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.75 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $5.74 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that KLA will post 30.61 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of KLA

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in KLA by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 550,949 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $426,660,000 after buying an additional 2,019 shares during the period. Community Financial Services Group LLC raised its position in shares of KLA by 538.5% during the third quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC now owns 7,445 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $5,765,000 after acquiring an additional 6,279 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank lifted its stake in shares of KLA by 655.8% in the third quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 27,368 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $21,194,000 after acquiring an additional 23,747 shares during the period. ING Groep NV boosted its holdings in KLA by 52.4% in the third quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 79,763 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $61,769,000 after acquiring an additional 27,436 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in KLA by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 33,215 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $25,722,000 after purchasing an additional 4,112 shares during the period. 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.