Why Are KLA Shares Trading Higher Today?

Analysts bumped their price targets on KLA Corp KLAC following the Q1 beat.

Needham analyst N. Quinn Bolton raised the PT to $400 from $390, implying a 17.5% upside, and keeps a Buy. The analyst cites the company's "strong" beat and raises quarter amid continued WFE sales mix shift to foundry/logic. 

The bulls will see KLA's print as further evidence that WFE could reach about $100B next year, and even the bears will have to admit that the company will likely outperform WFE for the second consecutive year, Bolton notes.

Credit Suisse analyst John Pitzer raised the PT to $430 from $380, implying a 26.3% upside, and keeps an Outperform.

The analyst notes KLA reported Q1 and guided Q2 above expectations and gave explicit guide for the first half of 2022 to increase HSD% from the second half of 2021 versus Street modeling revenue flattish.

Wells Fargo analyst Joe Quatrochi raised the PT to $360 from $345, implying a 5.7% upside, and keeps an Equal Weight. The analyst notes that shares "deservingly" traded higher given 2022 demand visibility and supply chain execution.

Susquehanna analyst Mehdi Hosseini raised the PT to $490 from $475, implying a 43.9% upside, and keeps a Positive. The analyst said he believes they can outperform peers and thus drive material upside to consensus estimates by gaining more than 100 bps of WFE market share by 2022.

Deutsche Bank analyst Sidney Ho raised PT to $420 from $400, implying a 23.3% upside, and keeps a Buy.

The company reported a "beat-and-raise" as wafer fab equipment expectations continue to rise, and KLA continues to do a good job navigating through supply chain challenges, Ho notes. He continues to view KLA as "the defensive name in the group given its higher exposure to foundry/logic spending."

Price Action: KLAC shares traded higher by 4.35% at $355.39 on the last check Thursday.