CoreCap Advisors LLC Acquires 1,808 Shares of KLA Corporation $KLAC

CoreCap Advisors LLC grew its holdings in KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 185.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,783 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 1,808 shares during the quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC’s holdings in KLA were worth $3,382,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Arlington Trust Co LLC grew its holdings in KLA by 125.0% during the 3rd quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 36 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new stake in KLA in the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. acquired a new stake in KLA in the 3rd quarter valued at about $43,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC raised its stake in shares of KLA by 28.6% in the third quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 45 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aventura Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of KLA during the fourth quarter worth approximately $55,000. 86.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on KLAC shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of KLA in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $1,800.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a report on Friday, March 13th. UBS Group set a $1,575.00 price objective on KLA in a research report on Friday, January 30th. KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating on shares of KLA in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Finally, TD Cowen raised KLA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $1,300.00 to $1,800.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, KLA has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,602.29.

KLA Price Performance

KLAC opened at $1,443.21 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $1,477.98 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1,280.90. 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 52 week low of $551.33 and a 52 week high of $1,693.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $189.18 billion, a PE ratio of 41.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.45.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $3.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $8.20 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that KLA Corporation will post 31.59 earnings per share for the current year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

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

KLA announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, March 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $7.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to purchase up to 3.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.