KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) Plans $1.45 Quarterly Dividend

KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be given a dividend of 1.45 per share by the semiconductor company on Friday, May 31st. This represents a $5.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 14th.

KLA has raised its dividend payment by an average of 15.2% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 14 years. KLA has a payout ratio of 20.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect KLA to earn $28.14 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 20.6%.

KLA Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of KLAC opened at $696.59 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 2.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.90. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $687.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $605.39. The stock has a market cap of $93.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.33. KLA has a 12 month low of $369.66 and a 12 month high of $729.15.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The semiconductor company reported $5.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.94 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.31 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 102.37% and a net margin of 27.19%. KLA’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.49 EPS. Equities analysts predict that KLA will post 23.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on KLAC shares. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of KLA from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of KLA from $692.00 to $698.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of KLA from $760.00 to $805.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 target price (up from $625.00) on shares of KLA in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on KLA from $740.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $722.26.

Insider Activity at KLA

In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 7,018 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 32,375 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,825,670. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 7,018 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 32,375 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,825,670. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Oreste Donzella sold 3,257 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,809,017.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About KLA

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.