CoreCap Advisors LLC Acquires 1,808 Shares of KLA Corporation $KLAC

CoreCap Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 185.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,783 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 1,808 shares during the quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC’s holdings in KLA were worth $3,382,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of KLAC. Close Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in KLA during the third quarter worth $133,209,000. Winslow Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in KLA in the 2nd quarter valued at $95,217,000. Achmea Investment Management B.V. grew its position in KLA by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 104,507 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $112,721,000 after purchasing an additional 6,109 shares during the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S grew its position in KLA by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 101,382 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $109,351,000 after purchasing an additional 5,586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Loomis Sayles & Co. L P increased its holdings in shares of KLA by 5,697.9% during the 2nd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 97,231 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $87,094,000 after purchasing an additional 95,554 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

KLAC has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of KLA from $1,595.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. New Street Research boosted their price target on KLA from $1,315.00 to $1,460.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Dbs Bank raised KLA from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 9th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of KLA in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on KLA from $1,600.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, KLA has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,602.29.

KLA Stock Down 0.5%

NASDAQ KLAC opened at $1,443.21 on Friday. KLA Corporation has a 1-year low of $551.33 and a 1-year high of $1,693.35. The company has a market capitalization of $189.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.99, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.45. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $1,477.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $1,280.90. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08.

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

KLA Dividend Announcement

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

KLA declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, March 12th that permits the company to repurchase $7.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the semiconductor company to reacquire up to 3.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

KLA Profile

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.