KLA Corporation (KLAC) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $1.90 on March 3rd

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 5th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be given a dividend of 1.90 per share by the semiconductor company on Tuesday, March 3rd. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th.

KLA has raised its dividend by an average of 0.2%per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 16 consecutive years. KLA has a dividend payout ratio of 22.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect KLA to earn $32.09 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $7.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.7%.

KLA Stock Performance

Shares of KLAC opened at $1,442.62 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $189.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.97, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.47. KLA has a twelve month low of $551.33 and a twelve month high of $1,693.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a current ratio of 2.83. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $1,347.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $1,140.28.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.75 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $3.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. KLA had a net margin of 35.76% and a return on equity of 98.18%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $8.20 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that KLA will post 31.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on KLAC shares. Citic Securities upped their price objective on KLA from $950.00 to $1,350.00 in a research report on Friday, November 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on KLA from $1,070.00 to $1,485.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price target on shares of KLA from $1,100.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Wolfe Research lifted their price objective on shares of KLA from $1,500.00 to $1,800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of KLA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $1,300.00 to $1,800.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,595.39.

KLA Company Profile

KLA is a provider of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related microelectronics industries. The company designs and manufactures equipment, software and services used by chipmakers to analyze and control manufacturing processes, detect defects, measure critical dimensions and improve yield across wafer fabrication, photomask and packaging operations. KLA’s offerings are aimed at enabling production of advanced logic, memory, and specialty devices at progressively smaller technology nodes and more complex package structures.

Its product portfolio includes optical and e-beam inspection systems, metrology tools for critical dimension and film measurement, mask and reticle inspection platforms, as well as enterprise software and data analytics that aggregate process data and drive automated process control.