NewEdge Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC)

NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 35.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,117 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,691 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC’s holdings in KLA were worth $11,640,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Silver Lake Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in KLA in the second quarter valued at $202,000. Copperwynd Financial LLC lifted its position in KLA by 1.5% in the second quarter. Copperwynd Financial LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,307,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Algert Global LLC purchased a new stake in KLA in the second quarter valued at $239,000. Ascent Group LLC lifted its position in KLA by 16.6% in the second quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,546 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,099,000 after acquiring an additional 362 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Driehaus Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in KLA in the second quarter valued at $218,000. 86.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at KLA

In other news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 17,437 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were 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 owns 105,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $74,257,998.29. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 17,437 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $705.01, for a total transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction of $1,702,815.87. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,298 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,063,876.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 20,873 shares of company stock valued at $14,532,193 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

KLA Stock Performance

Shares of KLAC opened at $774.41 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 2.15. The company has a market capitalization of $104.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.57, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.28. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $768.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $758.65. KLA Co. has a 1 year low of $448.31 and a 1 year high of $896.32.

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

KLA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were given a $1.45 dividend. This represents a $5.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. KLA’s payout ratio is currently 30.38%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on KLAC shares. StockNews.com cut shares of KLA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of KLA from $860.00 to $950.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of KLA from $800.00 to $950.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of KLA from $700.00 to $760.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of KLA from $760.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $808.62.

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.