Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Sells 780 Shares of KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC)

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lowered its stake in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 13.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,846 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 780 shares during the quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in KLA were worth $3,996,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of KLAC. 9258 Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in KLA during the 4th quarter valued at $210,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC increased its stake in KLA by 13.6% during the 4th quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 1,164 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $677,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC bought a new stake in KLA during the 4th quarter valued at $936,000. D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its stake in KLA by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 4,041 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,349,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in KLA by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 40,048 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $23,279,000 after purchasing an additional 3,347 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at KLA

In other KLA news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 17,437 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $705.01, for a total transaction of $12,293,259.37. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 105,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $74,257,998.29. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CAO Virendra A. Kirloskar sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $649.84, for a total value of $536,118.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,231 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,749,473.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 17,437 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $705.01, for a total transaction of $12,293,259.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 105,329 shares in the company, valued at $74,257,998.29. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 20,917 shares of company stock valued at $14,568,247 over the last three months. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on KLAC shares. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of KLA from $900.00 to $765.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of KLA from $750.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of KLA from $765.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of KLA from $700.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of KLA from $960.00 to $900.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $812.80.

KLA Price Performance

NASDAQ KLAC opened at $731.04 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $98.43 billion, a PE ratio of 38.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.28. KLA Co. has a 52 week low of $440.15 and a 52 week high of $896.32. The company has a quick ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $776.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $754.25.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The semiconductor company reported $6.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.15 by $0.45. The business had revenue of $2.57 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. KLA had a net margin of 28.15% and a return on equity of 103.50%. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $5.40 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that KLA Co. will post 29.09 earnings per share for the current year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $1.45 per share. This represents a $5.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.38%.

About KLA

KLA Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets process control, process-enabling, and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related electronics industries worldwide. It operates through three segments: Semiconductor Process Control; Specialty Semiconductor Process; and PCB, Display and Component Inspection.