American National Bank & Trust Has $17.05 Million Holdings in KLA Corporation $KLAC

American National Bank & Trust raised its position in shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,030 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 346 shares during the period. KLA makes up approximately 1.6% of American National Bank & Trust’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. American National Bank & Trust’s holdings in KLA were worth $17,048,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in KLAC. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in KLA by 15.7% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,257 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,126,000 after acquiring an additional 171 shares during the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of KLA by 54.6% during the second quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 16,511 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $14,790,000 after acquiring an additional 5,834 shares during the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of KLA by 5.9% during the second quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 431 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $386,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Winslow Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of KLA in the 2nd quarter valued at about $95,217,000. Finally, SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of KLA in the second quarter valued at about $381,000. Institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on KLAC shares. New Street Research lifted their price objective on KLA from $1,230.00 to $1,460.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Berenberg Bank lifted their price objective on KLA from $1,760.00 to $1,770.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on KLA from $1,450.00 to $1,800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their target price on KLA from $1,300.00 to $1,400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of KLA in a report on Friday, March 13th. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, KLA currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,607.64.

KLA Stock Performance

Shares of KLA stock opened at $1,516.84 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $198.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.44. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,474.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1,299.27. KLA Corporation has a 12-month low of $551.33 and a 12-month high of $1,693.35. 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 quarterly earnings data 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 business 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 business’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $8.20 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that KLA Corporation will post 31.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th were given a $1.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $7.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. KLA’s payout ratio is currently 22.11%.

KLA declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, March 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $7.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to purchase up to 3.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are 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.