Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC Reduces Position in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Mar 24th, 2023

Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC decreased its holdings in KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC – Get Rating) by 32.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,160 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 1,056 shares during the quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC’s holdings in KLA were worth $815,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in KLAC. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its stake in KLA by 1.9% in the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 22,566 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $8,261,000 after acquiring an additional 413 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in KLA by 34.9% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 80,289 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $29,382,000 after acquiring an additional 20,773 shares during the period. Prudential PLC lifted its stake in KLA by 183.1% in the first quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 4,374 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,601,000 after acquiring an additional 2,829 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in KLA by 32.9% during the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 924 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $338,000 after buying an additional 229 shares during the period. Finally, Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. lifted its position in KLA by 4.4% during the first quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. now owns 50,684 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $18,553,000 after buying an additional 2,151 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on KLAC. Cowen raised their price objective on KLA from $325.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 27th. Barclays lowered KLA from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $260.00 to $325.00 in a research report on Monday, January 23rd. KeyCorp raised their price objective on KLA from $410.00 to $468.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered KLA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, December 12th. Finally, KGI Securities lowered KLA from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, KLA has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.61.

KLA Price Performance

NASDAQ KLAC opened at $388.81 on Friday. KLA Co. has a one year low of $250.20 and a one year high of $429.46. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $395.01 and a 200 day moving average of $365.40. The company has a market capitalization of $53.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.99, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 2.34.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 26th. The semiconductor company reported $7.38 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $7.08 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $2.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.83 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 145.21% and a net margin of 33.77%. KLA’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.59 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that KLA Co. will post 24.26 EPS for the current year.

KLA Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 13th were given a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 10th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.34%. KLA’s payout ratio is 21.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other KLA news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 1,020 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $380.47, for a total value of $388,079.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 63,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,103,535.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 1,020 shares of KLA stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $380.47, for a total transaction of $388,079.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 63,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,103,535.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Ahmad A. Khan sold 3,831 shares of KLA stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $389.55, for a total value of $1,492,366.05. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 59,002 shares in the company, valued at $22,984,229.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 11,815 shares of company stock valued at $4,543,688. Insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

KLA Company Profile

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KLA Corp. engages in the supply of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related nano-electronics industries. The company operates through the following segments: Semiconductor Process Control, Specialty Semiconductor Process, PCB, Display & Component Inspection, and Other.