KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) Announces Dividend Increase – $1.70 Per Share

KLA Co. (NASDAQ:KLAC) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 7th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of 1.70 per share by the semiconductor company on Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.99%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This is a positive change from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.45.

KLA has increased 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 18.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect KLA to earn $32.29 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 Trading Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ:KLAC opened at $687.41 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $731.06 and its 200 day moving average is $763.72. KLA has a 12 month low of $505.50 and a 12 month high of $896.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $91.95 billion, a PE ratio of 31.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a current ratio of 2.13, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The semiconductor company reported $7.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.03 by $0.30. KLA had a return on equity of 105.16% and a net margin of 28.92%. The firm had revenue of $2.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $5.74 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that KLA will post 30.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on KLAC shares. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of KLA from $760.00 to $725.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of KLA from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $750.00 to $850.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on KLA from $760.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on KLA from $735.00 to $838.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Susquehanna dropped their price objective on KLA from $680.00 to $675.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 11th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, KLA presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $802.90.

KLA Company Profile

KLA Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of 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 and Component Inspection.