D. Scott Neal Inc. Cuts Position in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC)

D. Scott Neal Inc. lowered its holdings in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 10,801 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 166 shares during the quarter. KLA comprises about 3.7% of D. Scott Neal Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest position. D. Scott Neal Inc.’s holdings in KLA were worth $6,806,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in KLAC. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of KLA by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,979,293 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,630,424,000 after acquiring an additional 145,317 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its stake in KLA by 32,828.8% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 3,419,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,647,708,000 after purchasing an additional 3,408,617 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of KLA by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,221,694 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,487,971,000 after purchasing an additional 93,743 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of KLA by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,399,367 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,083,684,000 after purchasing an additional 286,015 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of KLA by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,163,958 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $959,695,000 after buying an additional 21,412 shares during the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on KLAC. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of KLA from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $750.00 to $850.00 in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on shares of KLA from $890.00 to $750.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of KLA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Barclays lowered their price target on KLA from $800.00 to $750.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised KLA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $750.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $809.10.

KLA Stock Up 2.1 %

KLAC opened at $716.25 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $651.44 and a 200-day moving average of $726.56. The company has a market capitalization of $95.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.27. KLA Co. has a fifty-two week low of $552.85 and a fifty-two week high of $896.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 2.13.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The semiconductor company reported $7.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $7.03 by $0.30. KLA had a net margin of 28.92% and a return on equity of 105.16%. The business had revenue of $2.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.75 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $5.74 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that KLA Co. will post 30.37 EPS for the current year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th were given a dividend of $1.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.95%. This is an increase from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.45. KLA’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.05%.

KLA Profile

KLA Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of process control, process-enabling, and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related electronics industries worldwide. It operates through three segments: Semiconductor Process Control; Specialty Semiconductor Process; and PCB and Component Inspection.