** Shares of U.S. semiconductor companies KLA Corp KLAC.O, Applied Materials AMAT.O, Lam Research LRCX.O, U.S.-listed Nova NVMI.O and Onto ONTO.N were up between about 1% and 3% in premarket trading, while U.S.-listed Camtek CAMT.O slipped nearly 1%

** Jefferies upgrades KLAC stock rating to "buy" from "hold"; raises PT to $1,500 from $1,100, citing a stronger leading edge/packaging outlook

** Brokerage sees AI pushing capacity adds starting in 2H26 with memory, leading-edge foundry, and packaging all to see major uplifts

** Brokerage also raises the PT of AMAT to $360 from $260, CAMT to $140 from $130, LRCX to $200 from $175, NVMI to $390 from $360 and ONTO to $200 from $170

** For US semiconductors, "AI should lift semiconductor capital equipment (Semi Cap), driving demand across leading-edge technologies, dynamic random access memory $(DRAM)$, and packaging; lower interest rates make a rotation to analog appealing, with modest earnings and mid-quarter raises" - Jefferies

** As of last close KLAC is up nearly 90%, AMAT 60%, CAMT 39%, LRCX 122%, NVMI 60%, stocks are up respectively, and ONTO is down 6.2%, YTD

(Reporting by Akriti Shah in Bengaluru)

((akriti.shah@thomsonreuters.com))