KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Price Target Raised to $928.00

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) had its price objective boosted by Morgan Stanley from $916.00 to $928.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the semiconductor company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on KLAC. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $830.00 price target on shares of KLA in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on KLA from $950.00 to $900.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities lifted their price target on KLA from $770.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on KLA from $750.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price target on KLA from $770.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $890.59.

KLA Stock Performance

NASDAQ:KLAC opened at $886.64 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $875.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $769.31. The company has a market capitalization of $117.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.44. KLA has a 1 year low of $551.33 and a 1 year high of $945.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 2.62 and a quick ratio of 1.83.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The semiconductor company reported $9.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.53 by $0.85. The company had revenue of $3.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.08 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 112.41% and a net margin of 33.41%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $6.60 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that KLA will post 31.59 earnings per share for the current year.

KLA announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, April 30th that permits the company to buyback $5.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the semiconductor company to reacquire up to 5.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

KLA Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th were paid a dividend of $1.90 per share. This represents a $7.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. This is an increase from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.70. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 19th. KLA’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.01%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other KLA news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 1,019 shares of KLA stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $766.46, for a total transaction of $781,022.74. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 27,779 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,291,492.34. The trade was a 3.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 10,802 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $683.30, for a total value of $7,381,006.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 78,740 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,803,042. This trade represents a 12.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,860 shares of company stock valued at $8,196,798 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On KLA

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of KLAC. World Investment Advisors lifted its stake in shares of KLA by 105.0% in the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 820 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $517,000 after acquiring an additional 420 shares during the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in shares of KLA in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,951,000. Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its stake in shares of KLA by 17.6% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 258,456 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $162,858,000 after acquiring an additional 38,628 shares during the last quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in KLA during the 4th quarter valued at about $24,840,000. Finally, Aviva PLC increased its holdings in KLA by 14.1% during the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 52,652 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $33,177,000 after purchasing an additional 6,507 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

About KLA

KLA Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of process control, process-enabling, and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related electronics industries worldwide. It operates through three segments: Semiconductor Process Control; Specialty Semiconductor Process; and PCB and Component Inspection.