Keeler Thomas Management LLC raised its position in KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC – Free Report) by 1,000.0% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 8,030 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,300 shares during the quarter. Keeler Thomas Management LLC’s holdings in KLA were worth $2,423,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. McIlrath & Eck LLC lifted its position in shares of KLA by 6.8% during the first quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 94 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $139,000 after purchasing an additional 6 shares in the last quarter. Motco grew its holdings in shares of KLA by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Motco now owns 405 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $492,000 after purchasing an additional 7 shares in the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC increased its stake in KLA by 17.1% during the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 48 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $58,000 after buying an additional 7 shares during the period. SouthState Bank Corp increased its stake in KLA by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. SouthState Bank Corp now owns 111 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $135,000 after buying an additional 7 shares during the period. Finally, Root Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in KLA by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 796 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $967,000 after buying an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several brokerages have commented on KLAC. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of KLA from $210.00 to $317.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $260.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $245.00 price objective on KLA and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of KLA in a report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their target price on KLA from $140.00 to $186.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $223.70.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other KLA news, EVP Mary Beth Wilkinson sold 13,802 shares of KLA stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.50, for a total transaction of $2,698,291.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 22,110 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,322,505. The trade was a 38.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Brian Lorig sold 59,586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.13, for a total value of $12,401,634.18. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 77,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,167,746.53. This represents a 43.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 258,533 shares of company stock valued at $55,977,470 over the last 90 days. 91.48% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
KLA Trading Down 0.1%
NASDAQ KLAC opened at $175.45 on Tuesday. KLA Corporation has a 52 week low of $83.22 and a 52 week high of $307.37. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $211.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $188.11. The company has a quick ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 2.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $229.23 billion, a PE ratio of 47.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.45.
KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $3.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.61 billion. KLA had a net margin of 35.57% and a return on equity of 87.66%. The company’s revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.94 EPS. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.
KLA Increases Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 17th will be paid a $0.23 dividend. This is a boost from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 17th. KLA’s payout ratio is 25.07%.
KLA 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.
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