KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Upgraded at Dbs Bank

Dbs Bank upgraded shares of KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) from a hold rating to a moderate buy rating in a research note published on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

KLAC has been the topic of a number of other reports. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of KLA from $1,400.00 to $1,800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Evercore boosted their price target on shares of KLA from $1,350.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Zacks Research raised shares of KLA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 16th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $1,800.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,601.04.

KLA Price Performance

KLA stock opened at $1,465.00 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $192.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.62, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a quick ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $1,457.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1,233.32. KLA has a 52 week low of $551.33 and a 52 week high of $1,693.35.

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

KLA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th were given a dividend of $1.90 per share. This represents a $7.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 17th. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.11%.

Insider Activity at KLA

In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 2,254 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,237.01, for a total value of $2,788,220.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 32,154 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,774,819.54. The trade was a 6.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On KLA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Basepoint Wealth LLC bought a new stake in KLA in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Arlington Trust Co LLC grew its stake in shares of KLA by 125.0% during the third quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 36 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Triumph Capital Management bought a new position in shares of KLA during the third quarter valued at about $40,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of KLA in the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. bought a new stake in shares of KLA in the 3rd quarter valued at about $43,000. Institutional investors 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.