Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC Buys 374 Shares of KLA Corporation $KLAC

Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC raised its stake in KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 18.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,419 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 374 shares during the quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC’s holdings in KLA were worth $2,610,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Winslow Capital Management LLC bought a new position in KLA in the 2nd quarter valued at about $95,217,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S boosted its position 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 in the last quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. increased its stake in KLA by 14.9% in the second quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 98,398 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $88,139,000 after acquiring an additional 12,729 shares during the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its position in KLA by 5,697.9% during the second quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 97,231 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $87,094,000 after purchasing an additional 95,554 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oak Associates Ltd. OH raised 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 purchasing an additional 1,504 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

KLA Trading Up 2.7%

NASDAQ KLAC opened at $1,546.68 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $202.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.00, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.47. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,416.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1,194.05. KLA Corporation has a 12 month low of $551.33 and a 12 month 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.

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

KLA Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be 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 is Tuesday, February 17th. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.11%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on KLAC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of KLA from $1,070.00 to $1,485.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Wolfe Research raised their target price on shares of KLA from $1,500.00 to $1,800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Argus boosted their target price on shares of KLA from $1,400.00 to $1,750.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Evercore increased their price target on KLA from $1,350.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $1,800.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a research report on Friday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,601.04.

Insider Buying and Selling at KLA

In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 2,254 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,237.01, for a total transaction of $2,788,220.54. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 32,154 shares in the company, valued at $39,774,819.54. This represents a 6.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

KLA 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.