KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) have been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-nine research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $1,601.0357.

Several research analysts recently commented on KLAC shares. New Street Research raised their target price on KLA from $1,315.00 to $1,460.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their price target on shares of KLA from $1,300.00 to $1,400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of KLA from $1,600.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of KLA from $1,600.00 to $1,900.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $1,800.00 price target on shares of KLA in a research note on Friday, January 30th.

KLA Stock Performance

NASDAQ:KLAC opened at $1,524.31 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $1,422.29 and its 200-day moving average is $1,196.34. The company has a market cap of $199.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.35, a PEG ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a current ratio of 2.83. KLA has a 52-week low of $551.33 and a 52-week high of $1,693.35.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.75 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $3.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 98.18% and a net margin of 35.76%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $8.20 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that KLA will post 31.59 earnings per share for the current year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be given a dividend of $1.90 per share. This represents a $7.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other KLA news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 2,254 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,237.01, for a total transaction of $2,788,220.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 32,154 shares in the company, valued at $39,774,819.54. This represents a 6.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 91.48% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On KLA

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Motco boosted its position in KLA by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Motco now owns 405 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $492,000 after buying an additional 7 shares in the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its stake in shares of KLA by 17.1% in the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 48 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 7 shares during the last quarter. SouthState Bank Corp boosted its holdings in shares of KLA by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. SouthState Bank Corp now owns 111 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $135,000 after acquiring an additional 7 shares in the last quarter. West Michigan Advisors LLC grew its position in KLA by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. West Michigan Advisors LLC now owns 305 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $371,000 after acquiring an additional 8 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC increased its holdings in KLA by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 2,087 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,251,000 after purchasing an additional 9 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

About KLA

KLA is a provider of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related microelectronics industries. The company designs and manufactures equipment, software and services used by chipmakers to analyze and control manufacturing processes, detect defects, measure critical dimensions and improve yield across wafer fabrication, photomask and packaging operations. KLA’s offerings are aimed at enabling production of advanced logic, memory, and specialty devices at progressively smaller technology nodes and more complex package structures.

Its product portfolio includes optical and e-beam inspection systems, metrology tools for critical dimension and film measurement, mask and reticle inspection platforms, as well as enterprise software and data analytics that aggregate process data and drive automated process control.