KLA Corporation $KLAC Shares Sold by Fisher Asset Management LLC

Fisher Asset Management LLC cut its holdings in KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 31,140 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 1,673 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC’s holdings in KLA were worth $33,588,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in KLAC. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. purchased a new position in shares of KLA during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $218,000. Close Asset Management Ltd purchased a new position in KLA during the third quarter worth $133,209,000. Westpac Banking Corp raised its holdings in shares of KLA by 11.2% in the third quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 9,276 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $10,005,000 after acquiring an additional 932 shares during the last quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of KLA by 5.7% in the third quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. now owns 280 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $302,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of KLA by 18.3% during the third quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC now owns 2,419 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,610,000 after acquiring an additional 374 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

KLA Trading Down 6.1%

Shares of KLAC opened at $1,441.35 on Wednesday. KLA Corporation has a twelve month low of $551.33 and a twelve month high of $1,693.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $188.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $1,436.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $1,212.32.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.75 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $3.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 98.18% and a net margin of 35.76%.The firm’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $8.20 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that KLA Corporation will post 31.59 earnings per share for the current year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th were given a dividend of $1.90 per share. This represents a $7.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 17th. KLA’s payout ratio is 22.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other KLA news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 2,254 shares of the business’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 transaction of $2,788,220.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 32,154 shares in the company, valued at $39,774,819.54. The trade was a 6.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 91.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on KLAC shares. Citic Securities raised their price target on shares of KLA from $950.00 to $1,350.00 in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Berenberg Bank raised their target price on shares of KLA from $1,760.00 to $1,770.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $1,630.00 target price on shares of KLA in a research note on Friday, January 30th. New Street Research increased their price target on KLA from $1,315.00 to $1,460.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on KLA from $1,400.00 to $1,800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,601.04.

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.