Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Increases Stock Position in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its holdings in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 58.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 566 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 209 shares during the quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in KLA were worth $467,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of KLAC. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of KLA in the second quarter valued at about $794,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in KLA by 8.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 691,039 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $569,758,000 after acquiring an additional 56,109 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in KLA by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,811,766 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,318,329,000 after acquiring an additional 28,172 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of KLA by 21.8% in the 2nd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 35,529 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $29,294,000 after purchasing an additional 6,361 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of KLA by 36.7% in the second quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC now owns 3,310 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,729,000 after purchasing an additional 889 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

KLA Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of KLA stock opened at $731.04 on Thursday. KLA Co. has a 1 year low of $440.15 and a 1 year high of $896.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 1.50. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $776.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $754.25. The company has a market capitalization of $98.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.28.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The semiconductor company reported $6.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.15 by $0.45. The company had revenue of $2.57 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 103.50% and a net margin of 28.15%. KLA’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.40 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that KLA Co. will post 29.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were given a dividend of $1.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $5.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.79%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.38%.

Insider Buying and Selling at KLA

In other news, CAO Virendra A. Kirloskar sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $649.84, for a total transaction of $536,118.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,231 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,749,473.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Mary Beth Wilkinson sold 2,611 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $652.17, for a total value of $1,702,815.87. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,298 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,063,876.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Virendra A. Kirloskar sold 825 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $649.84, for a total value of $536,118.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,231 shares in the company, valued at $2,749,473.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 20,917 shares of company stock worth $14,568,247 in the last 90 days. 0.12% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KLAC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of KLA from $765.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of KLA from $960.00 to $900.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Argus increased their price target on shares of KLA from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Susquehanna lowered their price objective on KLA from $730.00 to $680.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on KLA from $700.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $812.80.

About KLA

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.