KLA Co. (KLAC) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 14th

KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be paid 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 dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 14th.

KLA has increased its dividend payment by an average of 15.2% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. KLA has a dividend payout ratio of 20.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research 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 Performance

NASDAQ:KLAC opened at $696.59 on Friday. KLA has a 12 month low of $369.66 and a 12 month high of $729.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 2.14 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $93.79 billion, a PE ratio of 36.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.33. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $687.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $605.39.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The semiconductor company reported $5.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.94 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.31 billion. KLA had a net margin of 27.19% and a return on equity of 102.37%. KLA’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $5.49 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that KLA will post 23.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at KLA

In other KLA news, EVP Oreste Donzella sold 3,257 shares of KLA stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $697.85, for a total transaction of $2,272,897.45. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,809,017.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 7,018 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $705.04, for a total transaction of $4,947,970.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly 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 available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Oreste Donzella sold 3,257 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $697.85, for a total value of $2,272,897.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 16,922 shares in the company, 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Berenberg Bank boosted their target price on KLA from $670.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of KLA from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of KLA from $685.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price objective (up previously from $625.00) on shares of KLA in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on KLA from $605.00 to $760.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $722.26.

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.