Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. Decreases Stock Position in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC)

Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. lessened its stake in shares of KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 3.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 615 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 19 shares during the period. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC.’s holdings in KLA were worth $417,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of KLAC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in KLA by 1.0% in the fourth 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 period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in KLA by 12.2% in the fourth 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 period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in KLA in the fourth quarter worth $1,048,728,000. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in KLA by 10.2% in the third 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 period. Finally, Alkeon Capital Management LLC increased its stake in KLA by 52.8% in the third quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,156,913 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $530,630,000 after purchasing an additional 400,000 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

KLA Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ KLAC opened at $824.51 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 2.14. The company has a market cap of $111.01 billion, a PE ratio of 43.19, a P/E/G ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $759.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $680.37. KLA Co. has a fifty-two week low of $440.15 and a fifty-two week high of $876.55.

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

KLA Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th were paid a $1.45 dividend. This represents a $5.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 14th. KLA’s payout ratio is 30.38%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KLAC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup increased their target price on KLA from $725.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on KLA from $625.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of KLA in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on KLA from $685.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Barclays raised KLA from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $630.00 to $765.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $747.40.

Insider Transactions at KLA

In other news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 14,009 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $66,748,351.46. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, insider Ahmad A. Khan sold 7,833 shares of KLA stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at $24,399,800. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 14,009 shares of KLA stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 93,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $66,748,351.46. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,861 shares of company stock worth $16,795,913 over the last three months. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.