Claro Advisors LLC Sells 51 Shares of KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC)

Claro Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,644 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 51 shares during the period. Claro Advisors LLC’s holdings in KLA were worth $1,666,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Swedbank AB grew its stake in shares of KLA by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 550,949 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $426,660,000 after purchasing an additional 2,019 shares during the period. Community Financial Services Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of KLA by 538.5% during the third quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC now owns 7,445 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $5,765,000 after acquiring an additional 6,279 shares during the period. Eastern Bank grew its holdings in shares of KLA by 655.8% in the 3rd quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 27,368 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $21,194,000 after purchasing an additional 23,747 shares during the last quarter. ING Groep NV increased its position in shares of KLA by 52.4% during the 3rd quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 79,763 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $61,769,000 after purchasing an additional 27,436 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in KLA by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 33,215 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $25,722,000 after purchasing an additional 4,112 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on KLAC shares. Oppenheimer raised KLA from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $750.00 to $850.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on KLA from $746.00 to $703.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on KLA from $890.00 to $750.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. TD Cowen dropped their price target on KLA from $760.00 to $725.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of KLA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $809.10.

KLA Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of KLAC stock traded up $6.52 on Monday, hitting $689.58. 715,266 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,104,993. The stock has a market capitalization of $92.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.27. KLA Co. has a one year low of $552.85 and a one year high of $896.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 2.13. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $650.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $728.30.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The semiconductor company reported $7.33 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.03 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $2.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.75 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 105.16% and a net margin of 28.92%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.74 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that KLA Co. will post 30.61 EPS for the current year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th were paid a dividend of $1.70 per share. This is a boost from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.45. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.99%. KLA’s payout ratio is 31.05%.

About KLA

KLA Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of 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 and Component Inspection.