Sei Investments Co. Increases Stock Holdings in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC)

Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 1.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 77,710 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 759 shares during the quarter. Sei Investments Co. owned 0.06% of KLA worth $64,071,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of KLAC. 9258 Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of KLA in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $210,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of KLA by 103.1% in the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 23,397 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $13,600,000 after buying an additional 11,878 shares in the last quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of KLA in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $360,000. Skopos Labs Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of KLA in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $241,000. Finally, DSM Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of KLA in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at KLA

In other KLA news, CAO Virendra A. Kirloskar sold 825 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $649.84, for a total transaction of $536,118.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,231 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,749,473.04. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Virendra A. Kirloskar sold 825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $649.84, for a total value of $536,118.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,231 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,749,473.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 17,437 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $705.01, for a total value of $12,293,259.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 105,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $74,257,998.29. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 20,917 shares of company stock valued at $14,568,247. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

KLA Stock Performance

KLA stock opened at $758.85 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $102.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.75, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $772.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $755.28. KLA Co. has a 52 week low of $440.15 and a 52 week high of $896.32. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75.

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

KLA Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were given a dividend of $1.45 per share. This represents a $5.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.38%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on KLAC. Barclays lifted their price target on KLA from $765.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on KLA from $760.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Argus lifted their price objective on KLA from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on KLA from $750.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on KLA from $700.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, KLA has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $812.80.

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.