Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:KLIC) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.21

Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:KLIC) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, November 15th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 19th will be given a dividend of 0.205 per share by the semiconductor company on Tuesday, January 7th. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 19th. This is a boost from Kulicke and Soffa Industries’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20.

Kulicke and Soffa Industries has increased its dividend by an average of 15.5% per year over the last three years. Kulicke and Soffa Industries has a payout ratio of 43.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings.

Kulicke and Soffa Industries Price Performance

KLIC traded up $0.61 during trading on Friday, reaching $46.22. 1,174,030 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 499,950. Kulicke and Soffa Industries has a fifty-two week low of $38.20 and a fifty-two week high of $56.71. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $44.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $45.37. The stock has a market cap of $2.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -37.40 and a beta of 1.38.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on KLIC. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Kulicke and Soffa Industries from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Kulicke and Soffa Industries from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday. DA Davidson cut their price target on shares of Kulicke and Soffa Industries from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Craig Hallum reduced their target price on shares of Kulicke and Soffa Industries from $55.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upgraded Kulicke and Soffa Industries from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.40.

Kulicke and Soffa Industries announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, November 13th that permits the company to repurchase $300.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the semiconductor company to buy up to 11.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Kulicke and Soffa Industries Company Profile

Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells capital equipment and tools used to assemble semiconductor devices. It operates through four segments: Ball Bonding Equipment, Wedge Bonding Equipment, Advanced Solutions, and Aftermarket Products and Services (APS). The company offers ball bonding equipment, wafer level bonding equipment, wedge bonding equipment; and advanced display, die-attach, and thermocompression systems and solutions, as well as tools, spares and services for equipment.