Point72 Hong Kong Ltd Purchases New Holdings in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC)

Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in shares of KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 841 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $693,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 9258 Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in KLA in the fourth quarter valued at about $210,000. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of KLA by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,705 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $991,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of KLA by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 71,199 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $41,393,000 after acquiring an additional 4,078 shares in the last quarter. Avestar Capital LLC bought a new position in KLA in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $330,000. Finally, Evoke Wealth LLC acquired a new position in KLA during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $243,000. 86.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on KLAC. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on KLA from $860.00 to $950.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Citigroup lowered their target price on KLA from $960.00 to $900.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 16th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of KLA from $900.00 to $765.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of KLA from $700.00 to $760.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of KLA in a research note on Wednesday. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $750.00 price objective for the company. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $809.81.

Insider Activity at KLA

In other KLA news, EVP Brian Lorig sold 44 shares of KLA stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $819.40, for a total value of $36,053.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 14,211 shares in the company, valued at $11,644,493.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other KLA news, EVP Brian Lorig sold 44 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $819.40, for a total value of $36,053.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 14,211 shares in the company, valued at $11,644,493.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Mary Beth Wilkinson sold 2,611 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $652.17, for a total transaction of $1,702,815.87. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,298 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,063,876.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 20,917 shares of company stock worth $14,568,247 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

KLA Stock Performance

Shares of KLAC stock opened at $804.55 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $108.32 billion, a PE ratio of 41.13, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.28. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $768.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $756.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 1.50. KLA Co. has a one year low of $440.15 and a one year high of $896.32.

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

KLA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a $1.45 dividend. This represents a $5.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. KLA’s dividend payout ratio 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.