Cetera Investment Advisers Has $18.08 Million Stock Holdings in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC)

Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 83.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 25,878 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,764 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in KLA were worth $18,077,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of KLAC. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of KLA in the 4th quarter valued at $1,048,728,000. Dakota Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of KLA in the 1st quarter worth about $627,399,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of KLA in the 1st quarter valued at about $379,678,000. 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 valued at $2,061,469,000 after buying an additional 386,810 shares during the period. 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 valued at $580,008,000 after buying an additional 301,848 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on KLAC. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of KLA in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on KLA from $760.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on KLA from $735.00 to $838.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Raymond James lifted their price target on KLA from $750.00 to $875.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded KLA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, KLA currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $806.24.

KLA Stock Down 7.9 %

KLAC traded down $59.97 on Friday, hitting $696.17. The company had a trading volume of 2,071,281 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,064,510. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $808.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $722.79. KLA Co. has a 52-week low of $440.15 and a 52-week high of $896.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $93.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 1.50.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last released its earnings results 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. KLA had a net margin of 28.15% and a return on equity of 103.50%. The firm had revenue of $2.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $5.40 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that KLA Co. will post 29.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.45 per share. This represents a $5.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Ahmad A. Khan sold 7,833 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $760.00, for a total transaction of $5,953,080.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,105 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,399,800. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other KLA news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 14,009 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 93,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $66,748,351.46. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Ahmad A. Khan sold 7,833 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,399,800. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,905 shares of company stock worth $16,831,966 in the last 90 days. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.