OneAscent Financial Services LLC Takes $492,000 Position in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC)

OneAscent Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 636 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $492,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pathstone Holdings LLC lifted its stake in KLA by 2.1% in the third quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 17,764 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $13,756,000 after acquiring an additional 367 shares during the last quarter. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in KLA in the third quarter worth approximately $447,000. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in KLA by 22.5% in the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 13,138 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $10,174,000 after acquiring an additional 2,412 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC raised its holdings in KLA by 39.8% during the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 1,293 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,001,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AMG National Trust Bank raised its holdings in KLA by 142.4% during the third quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 686 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $532,000 after purchasing an additional 403 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on KLAC. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of KLA from $960.00 to $900.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 16th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of KLA from $800.00 to $750.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Argus raised their price objective on shares of KLA from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of KLA from $800.00 to $950.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised shares of KLA from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $750.00 to $850.00 in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $802.90.

KLA Stock Performance

NASDAQ:KLAC opened at $620.26 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $82.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.29. KLA Co. has a 1-year low of $527.11 and a 1-year high of $896.32. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $721.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $763.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.48.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The semiconductor company reported $7.33 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $7.03 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $2.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.75 billion. KLA had a net margin of 28.92% and a return on equity of 105.16%. The business’s revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.74 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that KLA Co. will post 30.91 EPS for the current year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $1.70 per share. This is a positive change from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.45. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. KLA’s payout ratio is presently 26.48%.

About KLA

KLA Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of 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 and Component Inspection.