Northstar Advisory Group LLC Acquires Shares of 419 KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC)

Northstar Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 419 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $244,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of KLA by 0.8% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,733,533 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,288,651,000 after buying an additional 47,838 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in KLA by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,159,498 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,449,135,000 after acquiring an additional 190,355 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of KLA by 10.4% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,844,959 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,133,396,000 after buying an additional 268,104 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of KLA by 22.8% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,074,884 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $759,532,000 after buying an additional 385,420 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of KLA by 3.5% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,598,677 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $733,249,000 after buying an additional 54,472 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

KLA Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ KLAC opened at $695.94 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $657.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $566.45. The firm has a market cap of $94.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 1.34. KLA Co. has a 52 week low of $355.88 and a 52 week high of $729.15. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The semiconductor company reported $6.16 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.91 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 107.56% and a net margin of 27.98%. KLA’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $7.38 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that KLA Co. will post 22.74 earnings per share for the current year.

KLA Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 19th were given a $1.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. This represents a $5.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.83%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.46%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on KLAC. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of KLA from $525.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of KLA from $740.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. New Street Research initiated coverage on shares of KLA in a research report on Monday, December 18th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $730.00 price target on the stock. Susquehanna cut shares of KLA from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $640.00 to $675.00 in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $685.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a research note on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, KLA presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $641.05.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other KLA news, EVP Oreste Donzella sold 3,257 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $697.85, for a total value of $2,272,897.45. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 16,922 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,809,017.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

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.