Cumberland Partners Ltd Grows Position in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC)

Cumberland Partners Ltd boosted its holdings in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 46.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,381 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 750 shares during the quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd’s holdings in KLA were worth $1,368,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in KLAC. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in KLA by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,159,498 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,449,135,000 after purchasing an additional 190,355 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in KLA by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,598,677 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $733,249,000 after buying an additional 54,472 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in KLA by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,365,784 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $626,431,000 after buying an additional 153,752 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in KLA by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,267,811 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $581,496,000 after buying an additional 117,584 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alkeon Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in KLA by 52.8% in the 3rd quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,156,913 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $530,630,000 after buying an additional 400,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 7,018 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $705.04, for a total value of $4,947,970.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 32,375 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,825,670. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 7,018 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $705.04, for a total transaction of $4,947,970.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 32,375 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,825,670. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Oreste Donzella sold 3,257 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $697.85, for a total value of $2,272,897.45. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 16,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,809,017.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on KLA in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $800.00 price target on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on KLA from $685.00 to $760.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on KLA from $525.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $675.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on KLA from $625.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $696.58.

KLA Stock Up 0.9 %

KLAC stock traded up $5.98 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $654.19. 420,007 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 951,955. The company has a current ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. KLA Co. has a 12-month low of $355.88 and a 12-month high of $729.15. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $684.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $597.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $88.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.34.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The semiconductor company reported $6.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.91 by $0.25. KLA had a return on equity of 107.56% and a net margin of 27.98%. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $7.38 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that KLA Co. will post 22.61 EPS for the current year.

KLA Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 19th were issued a $1.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. This represents a $5.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.89%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.46%.

KLA Profile

KLA Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets 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, Display and Component Inspection.