Today’s article is a short brief on KLA Corp ($KLAC). This company is a niche player in the semiconductor capital equipment sector. Specifically, they make tools that are highly specialized in checking and measuring for production defects during semiconductor manufacturing. And they are very good at what they do. KLAC is estimated to have ~50% of global market share in this “inspection and metrology tools” segment. Their long-term stock performance speaks to this. KLAC shares have a 27% CAGR over the last 10-years, and this is after the recent pullback. They enjoy gross margins of 60% and operating margins of 37%.
What does KLA Corp do?
In brief, KLA Corp occupies a highly specialized niche in the semiconductor manufacturing equipment space. Their products are mission-critical for inspection and metrology (i.e. the tools required to check and measure things at key stages of manufacturing).
They are divided into 3 business segments:
Semiconductor Process Control (~80-85% of revenue): consi…
