KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Upgraded by Dbs Bank to Moderate Buy Rating

Dbs Bank upgraded shares of KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) from a hold rating to a moderate buy rating in a research note released on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on KLAC. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $1,500.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a research note on Monday, January 12th. TD Cowen raised KLA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $1,300.00 to $1,800.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on KLA from $1,600.00 to $1,900.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $1,800.00 price target on shares of KLA in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Argus increased their price target on shares of KLA from $1,400.00 to $1,750.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, KLA presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,601.04.

KLA Trading Up 1.7%

Shares of NASDAQ KLAC opened at $1,452.94 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,452.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $1,231.69. KLA has a fifty-two week low of $551.33 and a fifty-two week high of $1,693.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $190.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.75 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $3.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. KLA had a net margin of 35.76% and a return on equity of 98.18%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $8.20 EPS. On average, analysts predict that KLA will post 31.59 EPS for the current year.

KLA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th were paid a $1.90 dividend. This represents a $7.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 17th. KLA’s payout ratio is presently 22.11%.

Insider Activity

In other KLA news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 2,254 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,237.01, for a total value of $2,788,220.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 32,154 shares in the company, valued at $39,774,819.54. This represents a 6.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 91.48% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On KLA

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Keyvantage Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of KLA in the second quarter valued at approximately $217,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its position in KLA by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 8,419 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $7,541,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC lifted its position in KLA by 36.5% in the 2nd quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 2,078 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,861,000 after acquiring an additional 556 shares in the last quarter. Invenio Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in KLA by 9.7% in the 2nd quarter. Invenio Wealth Partners LLC now owns 464 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $416,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Finally, Dorsey Wright & Associates acquired a new position in KLA in the 2nd quarter worth $292,000. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About KLA

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.