261 Shares in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) Purchased by Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC

Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 261 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. APG Asset Management US Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of KLA during the 4th quarter worth about $15,781,000. Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. purchased a new position in KLA during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,050,000. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board boosted its holdings in KLA by 22.3% during the 1st quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 8,780 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $6,133,000 after acquiring an additional 1,600 shares during the period. Norden Group LLC boosted its holdings in KLA by 1,579.3% during the 1st quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 6,566 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,589,000 after acquiring an additional 6,175 shares during the period. Finally, Objective Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in KLA during the 4th quarter valued at about $213,000. 86.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on KLAC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on KLA from $800.00 to $950.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on KLA from $760.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. TD Cowen raised their target price on KLA from $700.00 to $760.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on KLA from $800.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, StockNews.com cut KLA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, KLA has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $812.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other KLA news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 17,437 shares of KLA stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 105,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $74,257,998.29. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other KLA news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 17,437 shares of KLA stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 105,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $74,257,998.29. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Virendra A. Kirloskar sold 825 shares of KLA stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $649.84, for a total value of $536,118.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,231 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,749,473.04. 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 quarter. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

KLA Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ KLAC opened at $758.85 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 2.15. KLA Co. has a fifty-two week low of $440.15 and a fifty-two week high of $896.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $102.17 billion, a PE ratio of 39.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $772.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $755.00.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The semiconductor company reported $6.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.15 by $0.45. KLA had a return on equity of 103.50% and a net margin of 28.15%. The business had revenue of $2.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $5.40 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that KLA Co. will post 29.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were given a dividend of $1.45 per share. This represents a $5.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.38%.

KLA Company Profile

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.