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.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on KLAC. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of KLA from $692.00 to $698.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Friday. Raymond James restated an outperform rating and set a $750.00 target price (up from $625.00) on shares of KLA in a research report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC restated a hold rating on shares of KLA in a research report on Friday. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of KLA in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. They set an outperform rating and a $800.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Susquehanna restated a neutral rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of KLA in a research report on Monday, April 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $720.42.

KLA Price Performance

KLA stock traded up $33.31 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $706.26. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,193,523 shares, compared to its average volume of 821,545. The firm has a market capitalization of $95.51 billion, a PE ratio of 37.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.91. KLA has a fifty-two week low of $369.00 and a fifty-two week high of $729.15. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $685.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $599.79.

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

KLA Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 7,018 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $705.04, for a total transaction of $4,947,970.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 32,375 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,825,670. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 7,018 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $705.04, for a total transaction of $4,947,970.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 32,375 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,825,670. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Oreste Donzella sold 3,257 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $697.85, for a total value of $2,272,897.45. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 16,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,809,017.70. 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.