KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Earns Outperform Rating from Analysts at Evercore ISI

Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) in a report released on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage issued an outperform rating and a $800.00 price objective on the semiconductor company’s stock.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on KLAC. Berenberg Bank boosted their price target on shares of KLA from $670.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a buy rating and issued a $685.00 price target on shares of KLA in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of KLA from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of KLA from $565.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of KLA in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They set a buy rating and a $800.00 target price on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $688.42.

KLA Stock Performance

Shares of KLAC stock opened at $644.22 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $87.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.72, a P/E/G ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.91. KLA has a 52 week low of $355.88 and a 52 week high of $729.15. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $684.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $591.62.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The semiconductor company reported $6.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.91 by $0.25. KLA had a net margin of 27.98% and a return on equity of 107.56%. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $7.38 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that KLA will post 22.61 earnings per share for the current year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 19th were paid a $1.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. This represents a $5.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.90%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.46%.

Insider Activity

In other KLA news, EVP Oreste Donzella sold 3,257 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $697.85, for a total transaction of $2,272,897.45. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 16,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,809,017.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other KLA news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 7,018 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $705.04, for a total transaction of $4,947,970.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 32,375 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,825,670. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Oreste Donzella sold 3,257 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $697.85, for a total transaction of $2,272,897.45. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,809,017.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in KLA by 1.0% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in KLA by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,733,533 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,288,651,000 after purchasing an additional 47,838 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in KLA by 12.2% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in KLA by 10.4% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,844,959 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,133,396,000 after purchasing an additional 268,104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in KLA by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,547,420 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,480,816,000 after purchasing an additional 38,990 shares in the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.