Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan Raises Stock Holdings in KLA Corporation $KLAC

Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan grew its stake in shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 300.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,778 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 6,585 shares during the period. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan’s holdings in KLA were worth $9,341,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ulland Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of KLA in the second quarter worth approximately $32,000. Sentry Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of KLA during the 2nd quarter valued at $36,000. Arlington Trust Co LLC boosted its holdings in KLA by 125.0% in the 3rd quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 36 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new stake in KLA in the 3rd quarter worth $43,000. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its stake in KLA by 28.6% in the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 45 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $49,000 after buying an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at KLA

In other KLA news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 10,803 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,203.10, for a total transaction of $12,997,089.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 81,211 shares in the company, valued at $97,704,954.10. This represents a 11.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 2,254 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,237.01, for a total value of $2,788,220.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 32,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,774,819.54. The trade was a 6.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on KLAC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on KLA from $1,070.00 to $1,485.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $1,500.00 price target on shares of KLA in a research note on Monday, January 12th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of KLA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $1,300.00 to $1,800.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Citic Securities boosted their target price on shares of KLA from $950.00 to $1,350.00 in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of KLA from $1,500.00 to $1,850.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,595.39.

KLA Trading Up 8.4%

Shares of KLAC opened at $1,442.62 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $189.10 billion, a PE ratio of 41.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.47. The company’s fifty day moving average is $1,347.11 and its 200 day moving average is $1,140.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a current ratio of 2.83. KLA Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $551.33 and a fifty-two week high of $1,693.35.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.75 by $0.10. KLA had a net margin of 35.76% and a return on equity of 98.18%. The business had revenue of $3.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $8.20 earnings per share. KLA’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that KLA Corporation will post 31.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be given a $1.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $7.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.11%.

About KLA

KLA is a provider of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related microelectronics industries. The company designs and manufactures equipment, software and services used by chipmakers to analyze and control manufacturing processes, detect defects, measure critical dimensions and improve yield across wafer fabrication, photomask and packaging operations. KLA’s offerings are aimed at enabling production of advanced logic, memory, and specialty devices at progressively smaller technology nodes and more complex package structures.

Its product portfolio includes optical and e-beam inspection systems, metrology tools for critical dimension and film measurement, mask and reticle inspection platforms, as well as enterprise software and data analytics that aggregate process data and drive automated process control.