Russell Investments Group Ltd. Grows Stock Holdings in KLA Corporation $KLAC

Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 14.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 69,563 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,973 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.05% of KLA worth $74,898,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Close Asset Management Ltd purchased a new stake in KLA during the 3rd quarter valued at $133,209,000. Winslow Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of KLA in the 2nd quarter worth $95,217,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S grew its holdings in shares of KLA by 5.8% in the third 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 period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its holdings in shares of KLA by 5,697.9% in the second quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 97,231 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $87,094,000 after acquiring an additional 95,554 shares during the period. Finally, Oak Associates Ltd. OH increased its position in KLA by 1.7% during the second quarter. Oak Associates Ltd. OH now owns 90,116 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $80,721,000 after acquiring an additional 1,504 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

KLA Stock Performance

Shares of KLAC opened at $1,452.94 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $1,452.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1,231.69. The company has a quick ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. KLA Corporation has a 52 week low of $551.33 and a 52 week high of $1,693.35. The stock has a market cap of $190.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.27, a PEG ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.45.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $3.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 98.18% and a net margin of 35.76%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $8.20 EPS. On average, analysts expect that KLA Corporation will post 31.59 EPS for the current year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th were issued a dividend of $1.90 per share. 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 payout ratio is currently 22.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling at KLA

In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 2,254 shares of the stock in a transaction 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. This represents a 6.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 91.48% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on KLAC shares. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on KLA from $1,500.00 to $1,850.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Berenberg Bank upped their price target on shares of KLA from $1,760.00 to $1,770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. UBS Group set a $1,575.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $1,500.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a report on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on shares of KLA from $1,750.00 to $1,850.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.