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

KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC - Get Free Report) declared 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 0.85%.

KLA has increased its dividend by an average of 15.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 14 years. KLA has a payout ratio of 20.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Up 2.4 %

NASDAQ KLAC traded up $16.01 on Thursday, reaching $682.05. The stock had a trading volume of 675,031 shares, compared to its average volume of 961,066. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $687.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $604.86. The company has a current ratio of 2.14, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.90. KLA has a 1 year low of $369.66 and a 1 year high of $729.15. The company has a market capitalization of $91.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.33.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The semiconductor company reported $5.26 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.94 by $0.32. KLA had a return on equity of 102.37% and a net margin of 27.19%. The firm had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.31 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.49 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that KLA will post 23.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

KLAC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on KLA from $685.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on KLA from $692.00 to $698.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. StockNews.com raised KLA from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on KLA from $625.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on KLA from $605.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. One equities research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $722.26.

Insider Buying and Selling at KLA

In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 7,018 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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 SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 7,018 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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 SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Oreste Donzella sold 3,257 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 16,922 shares in the company, valued at $11,809,017.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.12% of the company's stock.

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.

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