B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. Cuts Stock Position in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC)

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 29.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,602 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 654 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in KLA were worth $1,240,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in KLA by 2.5% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its holdings in shares of KLA by 32,828.8% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 3,419,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,647,708,000 after purchasing an additional 3,408,617 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of KLA by 3.0% in 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 period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in KLA by 1.0% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,811,766 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,318,329,000 after purchasing an additional 28,172 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in KLA by 25.7% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,399,367 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,083,684,000 after purchasing an additional 286,015 shares during the period. 86.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on KLAC. Citigroup cut their price target on KLA from $960.00 to $900.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of KLA from $800.00 to $750.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Susquehanna lowered their price target on shares of KLA from $680.00 to $675.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on shares of KLA from $890.00 to $750.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $925.00 target price on shares of KLA in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $812.30.

KLA Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of KLA stock opened at $656.13 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $672.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $748.85. The firm has a market cap of $87.76 billion, a PE ratio of 29.96, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.27. KLA Co. has a 1 year low of $542.41 and a 1 year high of $896.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.48.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The semiconductor company reported $7.33 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $2.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $5.74 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that KLA Co. will post 30.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th were issued a dividend of $1.70 per share. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.04%. This is a boost from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.45. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.05%.

KLA Company 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.