KLA (KLAC) Q1 2027 Earnings Report

The call was strongly positive. KLA reported record revenue, record operating margins, substantial free cash flow, strong December-quarter guidance, growing backlog, and improving visibility into 2027. Demand is being driven by AI infrastructure, leading-edge logic, DRAM, HBM, and advanced packaging, while the company is expanding supply-chain and manufacturing capacity. The principal challenges were supply constraints, elevated memory costs, slower China growth, lower legacy-node intensity, and customer facility delays, but management expressed confidence in addressing these issues and sustaining growth.

Management guided December quarter revenue of $4.7 billion plus or minus $200 million, gross margin of 62.5% plus or minus 1 percentage point, operating expenses of approximately $710 million, other income and net of approximately $25 million expense, a planning tax rate of 14.5%, non GAAP diluted EPS of $1.44 plus or minus $0.11, and GAAP diluted EPS of $1.41 plus or minus $0.11 based on approximately 1.31 billion shares; Foundry/logic is forecasted to be approximately 60% and memory about 40% of semiconductor process control systems revenue to semiconductor customers, with DRAM approximately 84% and NAND the remaining 16%. The wafer equipment market is expected to be approximately the mid-$150 billion range in calendar 2026 and exceed $200 billion in calendar 2027, with second half of calendar year 26 over first half of approximately 25%; Advanced Packaging Process Control Systems revenue remains on track to hit $1.1 billion or more than 70% year over year growth, services are likely to operate towards the higher end of the range, China is expected to be somewhere between 27% to 29% in Q4 and somewhere in the low 20s percentile in 2027, CapEx is expected to trend up to somewhere between $600 million and $800 million per year, and the long-run incremental operating margin model is 40% to 50%.