KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.32 EPS

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The semiconductor company reported $5.26 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.94 by $0.32, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.31 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 103.31% and a net margin of 27.19%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $5.49 earnings per share. KLA updated its Q4 guidance to $5.47-6.67 EPS and its Q4 2024 guidance to 5.470-6.670 EPS.

KLA Stock Performance

NASDAQ:KLAC traded up $33.31 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $706.26. 1,193,523 shares of the stock were exchanged, 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 company has a 50 day simple moving average of $685.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $599.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.34.

KLA Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

KLAC has been the topic of several research reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on KLA from $685.00 to $760.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on KLA in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $800.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group lifted their target price on KLA from $605.00 to $760.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Barclays raised their price target on KLA from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their target price on KLA from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, KLA has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $720.42.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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