KLA Corporation $KLAC is Morse Asset Management Inc’s 9th Largest Position

Morse Asset Management Inc reduced its position in KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 4.7% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,103 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 450 shares during the quarter. KLA comprises 2.0% of Morse Asset Management Inc’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Morse Asset Management Inc’s holdings in KLA were worth $9,818,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Westpac Banking Corp lifted its position in KLA by 11.2% during the third quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 9,276 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $10,005,000 after acquiring an additional 932 shares during the last quarter. Dorsey Wright & Associates purchased a new position in KLA in the second quarter worth $292,000. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments grew its holdings in KLA by 631.6% in the second quarter. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments now owns 15,290 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $13,603,000 after purchasing an additional 13,200 shares during the last quarter. Oak Associates Ltd. OH increased its position in shares of KLA by 1.7% during the second quarter. Oak Associates Ltd. OH now owns 90,116 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $80,721,000 after purchasing an additional 1,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Close Asset Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of KLA during the 3rd quarter valued at $133,209,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

KLA Price Performance

NASDAQ KLAC opened at $1,438.24 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $188.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.85, a PEG ratio of 2.68 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. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $1,466.12 and its 200 day moving average price is $1,247.05. KLA Corporation has a 1 year low of $551.33 and a 1 year high of $1,693.35.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $3.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 98.18% and a net margin of 35.76%.The firm’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $8.20 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that KLA Corporation will post 31.59 earnings per share for the current year.

KLA declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, March 12th that allows the company to repurchase $7.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the semiconductor company to buy up to 3.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

KLA Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of KLA in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Berenberg Bank upped their target price on KLA from $1,760.00 to $1,770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Zacks Research upgraded KLA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their price target on KLA from $1,300.00 to $1,400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of KLA from $1,600.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,602.29.

KLA Company Profile

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.