KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) Holdings Increased by New Century Financial Group LLC

New Century Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 35.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 851 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 223 shares during the quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC’s holdings in KLA were worth $594,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of KLA by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,036,035 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $7,577,847,000 after purchasing an additional 133,821 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of KLA by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,546,308 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,061,469,000 after purchasing an additional 386,810 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of KLA in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,048,728,000. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of KLA by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,267,811 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $581,496,000 after purchasing an additional 117,584 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of KLA by 43.4% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 997,778 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $580,008,000 after purchasing an additional 301,848 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at KLA

In related news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 14,009 shares of KLA stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.63, for a total transaction of $10,039,269.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 93,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $66,748,351.46. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other KLA news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 14,009 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.63, for a total value of $10,039,269.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 93,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $66,748,351.46. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Ahmad A. Khan sold 7,833 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $760.00, for a total transaction of $5,953,080.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,399,800. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,905 shares of company stock valued at $16,831,966 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

KLA Price Performance

Shares of KLA stock traded up $14.22 during trading on Thursday, hitting $853.33. 440,788 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 766,154. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 2.14 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $770.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $686.67. KLA Co. has a twelve month low of $440.15 and a twelve month high of $876.55. The company has a market cap of $114.89 billion, a PE ratio of 44.70, a PEG ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.27.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The semiconductor company reported $5.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.94 by $0.32. KLA had a net margin of 27.19% and a return on equity of 102.37%. The business had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.31 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $5.49 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that KLA Co. will post 23.3 earnings per share for the current year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th were given a dividend of $1.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $5.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 30.38%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on KLAC shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of KLA from $685.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of KLA in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $800.00 target price on the stock. Barclays raised shares of KLA from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $630.00 to $765.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of KLA from $860.00 to $950.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of KLA from $725.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $747.40.

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.