KLA Co. (KLAC) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $1.45 on September 3rd

KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 1st, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of 1.45 per share by the semiconductor company on Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $5.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th.

KLA has increased its dividend by an average of 15.2% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 14 years. KLA has a dividend payout ratio of 19.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect KLA to earn $32.30 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 18.0%.

KLA Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ KLAC traded down $59.97 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $696.17. The company had a trading volume of 2,071,281 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,064,510. The company has a quick ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75. KLA has a twelve month low of $440.15 and a twelve month high of $896.32. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $808.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $722.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $93.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.27.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The semiconductor company reported $6.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.15 by $0.45. The firm had revenue of $2.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.52 billion. KLA had a net margin of 28.15% and a return on equity of 103.50%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $5.40 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that KLA will post 29.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at KLA

In other KLA news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 14,009 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.63, for a total transaction of $10,039,269.67. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 93,142 shares in the company, valued at approximately $66,748,351.46. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other KLA news, insider Ahmad A. Khan sold 7,833 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $760.00, for a total transaction of $5,953,080.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,105 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,399,800. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 14,009 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $716.63, for a total transaction of $10,039,269.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 93,142 shares in the company, valued at $66,748,351.46. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 22,905 shares of company stock valued at $16,831,966. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on KLAC. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of KLA from $760.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of KLA from $700.00 to $760.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of KLA in a research note on Monday, May 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $820.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of KLA from $692.00 to $698.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of KLA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, KLA has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $806.24.

KLA Company Profile

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.