KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) Shares Bought by Rakuten Securities Inc.

Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its position in shares of KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 60.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 106 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc.’s holdings in KLA were worth $67,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in KLAC. Swedbank AB grew its position in shares of KLA by 0.4% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 550,949 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $426,660,000 after purchasing an additional 2,019 shares in the last quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of KLA by 22.7% during the fourth quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 648 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $443,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the period. ING Groep NV boosted its position in shares of KLA by 52.4% during the third quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 79,763 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $61,769,000 after buying an additional 27,436 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of KLA by 14.1% during the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 33,215 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $25,722,000 after buying an additional 4,112 shares during the period. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of KLA by 27.6% in the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,778 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $6,161,000 after acquiring an additional 2,112 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays increased their price objective on KLA from $700.00 to $760.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on KLA from $703.00 to $748.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on KLA from $795.00 to $870.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on KLA from $800.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on KLA from $800.00 to $830.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $831.68.

KLA Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of KLAC opened at $680.39 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $724.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $707.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 2.36. The company has a market capitalization of $90.41 billion, a PE ratio of 28.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.30. KLA Co. has a fifty-two week low of $609.40 and a fifty-two week high of $896.32.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The semiconductor company reported $8.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.73 by $0.47. KLA had a return on equity of 108.60% and a net margin of 29.58%. As a group, analysts forecast that KLA Co. will post 31.59 EPS for the current year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 24th were paid a dividend of $1.70 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 24th. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.00%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio is presently 28.60%.

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.