Brokerages Set KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) PT at $1,601.04

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) has earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-nine analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nineteen have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $1,601.0357.

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on KLAC. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their price objective on shares of KLA from $1,300.00 to $1,400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. New Street Research boosted their price target on KLA from $1,315.00 to $1,460.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $1,750.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on KLA from $1,450.00 to $1,800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of KLA in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 32,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,774,819.54. This represents a 6.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of KLA

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BNB Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in KLA in the fourth quarter worth about $1,460,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of KLA by 31.4% in the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 91,413 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $111,910,000 after purchasing an additional 21,850 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of KLA by 237.8% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 17,055 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $20,723,000 after buying an additional 12,006 shares during the last quarter. Abound Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of KLA in the fourth quarter worth approximately $241,000. Finally, LM Advisors LLC grew its position in KLA by 22.1% during the fourth quarter. LM Advisors LLC now owns 342 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $416,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

KLA Stock Performance

Shares of KLA stock opened at $1,524.55 on Friday. KLA has a 1 year low of $551.33 and a 1 year high of $1,693.35. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $1,427.87 and its 200 day moving average is $1,204.25. The stock has a market cap of $199.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.36, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.00.

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 the consensus estimate of $8.75 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $3.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. KLA had a net margin of 35.76% and a return on equity of 98.18%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $8.20 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that KLA will post 31.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA Announces Dividend

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 issued a $1.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $7.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.11%.

KLA Company 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.