Wells Fargo & Company Has Lowered Expectations for KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Stock Price

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) had its target price lowered by equities research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $800.00 to $795.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the semiconductor company’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 16.74% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $925.00 target price on shares of KLA in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of KLA from $760.00 to $725.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Oppenheimer raised KLA from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $750.00 to $850.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Susquehanna dropped their price target on KLA from $680.00 to $675.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised shares of KLA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $750.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $809.10.

KLA Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:KLAC traded down $2.05 during trading on Monday, reaching $681.01. The stock had a trading volume of 168,256 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,029,416. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $650.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $728.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $91.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.27. KLA has a 52 week low of $552.85 and a 52 week high of $896.32. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The semiconductor company reported $7.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.03 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $2.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.75 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 105.16% and a net margin of 28.92%. The company’s revenue was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $5.74 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that KLA will post 30.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On KLA

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in KLA by 2.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,979,293 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,630,424,000 after acquiring an additional 145,317 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its holdings in shares of KLA by 32,828.8% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 3,419,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,647,708,000 after buying an additional 3,408,617 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in KLA by 3.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,221,694 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,487,971,000 after purchasing an additional 93,743 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of KLA by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,811,766 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,318,329,000 after buying an additional 28,172 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of KLA by 25.7% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,399,367 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,083,684,000 after acquiring an additional 286,015 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

About KLA

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.