Harbor Investment Advisory LLC Purchases 1,046 Shares of KLA Corporation $KLAC

Harbor Investment Advisory LLC increased its position in KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 4,023.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,072 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,046 shares during the quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in KLA were worth $1,303,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Close Asset Management Ltd bought a new stake in KLA in the third quarter valued at approximately $133,209,000. Winslow Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of KLA during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $95,217,000. Achmea Investment Management B.V. increased its holdings in shares of KLA by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 104,507 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $112,721,000 after acquiring an additional 6,109 shares during the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S increased its holdings in shares of KLA by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 101,382 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $109,351,000 after acquiring an additional 5,586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its stake in KLA by 5,697.9% in the 2nd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 97,231 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $87,094,000 after acquiring an additional 95,554 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

KLA Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of KLAC stock opened at $1,498.67 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $1,476.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1,261.99. KLA Corporation has a 1 year low of $551.33 and a 1 year high of $1,693.35. 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 has a market cap of $196.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.45.

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

KLA announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, March 12th that allows the company to repurchase $7.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the semiconductor company to purchase up to 3.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

KLA Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

KLAC has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $1,630.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of KLA from $1,800.00 to $1,900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. UBS Group set a $1,575.00 target price on shares of KLA in a report on Friday, January 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of KLA from $1,550.00 to $1,600.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price objective on shares of KLA from $1,300.00 to $1,400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Twenty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, KLA presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,602.29.

KLA Company Profile

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.