Jones Financial Companies Lllp Buys 552 Shares of KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC)

Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in shares of KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 44.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,786 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 552 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp’s holdings in KLA were worth $1,125,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in KLAC. Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of KLA by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 550,949 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $426,660,000 after purchasing an additional 2,019 shares in the last quarter. M&G PLC bought a new stake in KLA in the 3rd quarter valued at $820,000. Graypoint LLC raised its stake in KLA by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 2,757 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,135,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in KLA by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 172,389 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $133,500,000 after acquiring an additional 8,830 shares during the period. Finally, Consolidated Planning Corp raised its stake in KLA by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter. Consolidated Planning Corp now owns 2,409 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,866,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on KLAC. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on KLA from $759.00 to $864.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on KLA from $800.00 to $825.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on KLA from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on KLA from $800.00 to $830.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on KLA from $703.00 to $748.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $831.68.

KLA Stock Performance

KLAC opened at $711.29 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $94.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.30. KLA Co. has a 52-week low of $609.40 and a 52-week high of $896.32. 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 business’s fifty day moving average is $722.21 and its 200-day moving average is $711.55.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last released its quarterly earnings data 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%. Sell-side analysts expect that KLA Co. will post 31.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Monday, February 24th were paid a $1.70 dividend. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 24th. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.60%.

About KLA

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.