Citigroup Cuts KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Price Target to $900.00

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) had its price objective decreased by Citigroup from $960.00 to $900.00 in a research note published on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the semiconductor company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on KLAC. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a neutral rating and set a $950.00 target price on shares of KLA in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on KLA from $750.00 to $875.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, June 7th. TD Cowen increased their target price on KLA from $700.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. UBS Group lowered their price target on KLA from $900.00 to $765.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of KLA from $760.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $812.80.

KLA Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:KLAC opened at $736.40 on Monday. KLA has a one year low of $440.15 and a one year high of $896.32. The stock has a market cap of $99.15 billion, a PE ratio of 38.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.28. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $782.50 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $754.26. 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 (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The semiconductor company reported $6.60 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.15 by $0.45. The firm had revenue of $2.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.52 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 103.50% and a net margin of 28.15%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.40 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that KLA will post 29.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $1.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $5.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.79%. KLA’s payout ratio is currently 30.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 17,437 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other KLA news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 17,437 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $705.01, for a total value of $12,293,259.37. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 105,329 shares in the company, valued at approximately $74,257,998.29. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Mary Beth Wilkinson sold 2,611 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $652.17, for a total value of $1,702,815.87. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 9,298 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,063,876.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,917 shares of company stock worth $14,568,247 in the last 90 days. 0.12% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of KLA

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in KLA during the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Cedar Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in KLA by 77.3% in the first quarter. Cedar Wealth Management LLC now owns 39 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in KLA in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. DSM Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in KLA during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of KLA in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

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.