diff --git a/arch/arm64/kvm/pmu-emul.c b/arch/arm64/kvm/pmu-emul.c
index e1860acae641..c816db5d6761 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kvm/pmu-emul.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/pmu-emul.c
@@ -174,8 +174,8 @@ static void kvm_pmu_set_pmc_value(struct kvm_pmc *pmc, u64 val, bool force)
 		 * action is to use PMCR.P, which will reset them to
 		 * 0 (the only use of the 'force' parameter).
 		 */
-		val  = __vcpu_sys_reg(vcpu, reg) & GENMASK(63, 32);
-		val |= lower_32_bits(val);
+		val = (__vcpu_sys_reg(vcpu, reg) & GENMASK(63, 32)) |
+		      lower_32_bits(val);
 	}
 
 	__vcpu_assign_sys_reg(vcpu, reg, val);