We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
You are being directed to ZacksTrade, a division of LBMZ Securities and licensed broker-dealer. ZacksTrade and Zacks.com are separate companies. The web link between the two companies is not a solicitation or offer to invest in a particular security or type of security. ZacksTrade does not endorse or adopt any particular investment strategy, any analyst opinion/rating/report or any approach to evaluating individual securities.
If you wish to go to ZacksTrade, click OK. If you do not, click Cancel.
If You Invested $1000 in KLA a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now
Read MoreHide Full Article
How much a stock's price changes over time is important for most investors, since price performance can both impact your investment portfolio and help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.
FOMO, or the fear of missing out, also plays a role in investing, particularly with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.
What if you'd invested in KLA (KLAC - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to KLAC for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?
KLA's Business In-Depth
With that in mind, let's take a look at KLA's main business drivers.
San Jose, CA-based KLA Corporation is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of process diagnostics and control (PDC) equipment and yield management solutions required for the fabrication of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) or chips. The firm has a comprehensive portfolio of products addressing each major PDC subsegment—photomask (reticle) inspection, wafer inspection/defect review and metrology.
Reticle production is vital to the semiconductor device formation process. Reticles are used to control the precise deposition of materials onto the wafer, which ultimately change its chemical characteristics, imparting specific functionalities to the ICs thus created. Inspection and metrology tools measure the quality of the reticles, helping to improve reticle production yields. As a result of the broader applicability of semiconductors, shrinking form factors and increasing functionalities of individual chips, reticle design and production are growing in importance. Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor were the largest customers in the last three years, accounting for more than 10% of total sales in each year. The two main product lines are defect inspection and metrology. KLA’s defect inspection tools have very broad application in chip, wafer, reticle, storage, compound semiconductor and MEMS manufacturing. Metrology tools are used to gather critical dimension measurements of the wafer and process dimensions such as film thickness, lithography overlay and surface profiling. The company’s metrology products are used in chip, wafer, reticle and solar device manufacturing. KLA also offers other products and services.
In addition to new tools, the company also offers a comprehensive portfolio of refurbished tools that upgrade and improve yields of existing equipment under the KT-Certified program. Refurbished tools are currently sold to IC, reticle, substrate, MEMS and data storage manufacturers.
Although the company is a major player in each of its served markets, it faces competition from other large equipment suppliers such as Applied Materials and Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation.
Bottom Line
Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of a few things: research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in KLA a decade ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.
According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in April 2011 would be worth $7,795.07, or a gain of 679.51%, as of April 26, 2021, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.
Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 212.56% and gold's return of 13.68% over the same time frame.
Looking ahead, analysts are expecting more upside for KLAC.
KLA is driven by a strong process control market, revenue diversification and customer acceptance of key products. Moreover, growing Foundry and Logic investments remain major positives. Additionally, enhanced wafer cleanliness and geometry specifications in the bare wafer market are driving demand for the company’s wafer products. Also the strengthening memory market is a tailwind. Furthermore, high exposure to 5G infrastructure and the smartphone market is another positive. Markedly, transition to advanced nodes and the insertion of EUV lithography are expected to drive growth in the near future. Notably, the stock has outperformed the industry it belongs to over a year. However, the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic remain concerns. Further, sluggishness across PCB, Display and component inspection remains an overhang for the company.
Shares have gained 10.91% over the past four weeks and there have been 1 higher earnings estimate revisions for fiscal 2021 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.
See More Zacks Research for These Tickers
Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:
Image: Bigstock
If You Invested $1000 in KLA a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now
How much a stock's price changes over time is important for most investors, since price performance can both impact your investment portfolio and help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.
FOMO, or the fear of missing out, also plays a role in investing, particularly with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.
What if you'd invested in KLA (KLAC - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to KLAC for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?
KLA's Business In-Depth
With that in mind, let's take a look at KLA's main business drivers.
San Jose, CA-based KLA Corporation is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of process diagnostics and control (PDC) equipment and yield management solutions required for the fabrication of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) or chips. The firm has a comprehensive portfolio of products addressing each major PDC subsegment—photomask (reticle) inspection, wafer inspection/defect review and metrology.
Reticle production is vital to the semiconductor device formation process. Reticles are used to control the precise deposition of materials onto the wafer, which ultimately change its chemical characteristics, imparting specific functionalities to the ICs thus created. Inspection and metrology tools measure the quality of the reticles, helping to improve reticle production yields. As a result of the broader applicability of semiconductors, shrinking form factors and increasing functionalities of individual chips, reticle design and production are growing in importance. Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor were the largest customers in the last three years, accounting for more than 10% of total sales in each year. The two main product lines are defect inspection and metrology. KLA’s defect inspection tools have very broad application in chip, wafer, reticle, storage, compound semiconductor and MEMS manufacturing. Metrology tools are used to gather critical dimension measurements of the wafer and process dimensions such as film thickness, lithography overlay and surface profiling. The company’s metrology products are used in chip, wafer, reticle and solar device manufacturing. KLA also offers other products and services.
In addition to new tools, the company also offers a comprehensive portfolio of refurbished tools that upgrade and improve yields of existing equipment under the KT-Certified program. Refurbished tools are currently sold to IC, reticle, substrate, MEMS and data storage manufacturers.
Although the company is a major player in each of its served markets, it faces competition from other large equipment suppliers such as Applied Materials and Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation.
Bottom Line
Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of a few things: research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in KLA a decade ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.
According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in April 2011 would be worth $7,795.07, or a gain of 679.51%, as of April 26, 2021, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.
Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 212.56% and gold's return of 13.68% over the same time frame.
Looking ahead, analysts are expecting more upside for KLAC.
KLA is driven by a strong process control market, revenue diversification and customer acceptance of key products. Moreover, growing Foundry and Logic investments remain major positives. Additionally, enhanced wafer cleanliness and geometry specifications in the bare wafer market are driving demand for the company’s wafer products. Also the strengthening memory market is a tailwind. Furthermore, high exposure to 5G infrastructure and the smartphone market is another positive. Markedly, transition to advanced nodes and the insertion of EUV lithography are expected to drive growth in the near future. Notably, the stock has outperformed the industry it belongs to over a year. However, the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic remain concerns. Further, sluggishness across PCB, Display and component inspection remains an overhang for the company.
Shares have gained 10.91% over the past four weeks and there have been 1 higher earnings estimate revisions for fiscal 2021 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.