KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Issues Q4 Earnings Guidance

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) updated its fourth quarter earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided EPS guidance of $5.47-6.67 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $5.73. The company issued revenue guidance of $2.375-2.625 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $2.43 billion. KLA also updated its Q4 2024 guidance to 5.470-6.670 EPS.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of KLA from $685.00 to $760.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of KLA from $692.00 to $698.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Friday. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of KLA from $700.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of KLA in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. They set an outperform rating and a $800.00 target price for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of KLA from $565.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $720.42.

KLA Trading Up 4.9 %

Shares of KLAC traded up $33.31 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $706.26. The stock had a trading volume of 1,193,523 shares, compared to its average volume of 821,545. KLA has a 1 year low of $369.00 and a 1 year high of $729.15. The firm has a market cap of $95.51 billion, a PE ratio of 37.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.91 and a quick ratio of 1.25. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $685.41 and its 200 day moving average is $599.79.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The semiconductor company reported $5.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.94 by $0.32. KLA had a net margin of 27.19% and a return on equity of 103.31%. The business had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.31 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $5.49 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that KLA will post 22.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Monday, February 19th were issued a dividend of $1.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. This represents a $5.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.82%. KLA’s payout ratio is 30.38%.

Insider Activity at KLA

In related news, EVP Oreste Donzella sold 3,257 shares of KLA stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $697.85, for a total transaction of $2,272,897.45. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 16,922 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,809,017.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other KLA news, EVP Oreste Donzella sold 3,257 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $697.85, for a total transaction of $2,272,897.45. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 16,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,809,017.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 7,018 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $705.04, for a total transaction of $4,947,970.72. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 32,375 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,825,670. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About KLA

KLA Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets 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, Display and Component Inspection.