Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. Boosts Position in KLA Corporation $KLAC

Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. grew its stake in shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 600.7% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 31,561 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 27,057 shares during the period. KLA comprises 2.4% of Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its biggest position. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc.’s holdings in KLA were worth $9,522,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co boosted its position in shares of KLA by 829.7% in the second quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co now owns 7,456 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,249,000 after purchasing an additional 6,654 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of KLA by 86.6% during the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 4,063 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,937,000 after purchasing an additional 1,886 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in shares of KLA by 978.2% during the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 858,984 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $259,164,000 after purchasing an additional 779,317 shares during the period. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of KLA by 1,126.5% during the 2nd quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,157 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,851,000 after buying an additional 5,655 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Silverleafe Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in KLA by 1,154.7% in the 2nd quarter. Silverleafe Capital Partners LLC now owns 7,641 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,305,000 after buying an additional 7,032 shares in the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

KLAC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $253.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their price target on KLA from $140.00 to $186.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $270.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of KLA from $210.00 to $317.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Susquehanna set a $215.00 target price on shares of KLA and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $223.70.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other KLA news, CAO Virendra A. Kirloskar sold 4,504 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.50, for a total transaction of $880,532.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 7,972 shares in the company, valued at $1,558,526. This represents a 36.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Mary Beth Wilkinson sold 13,802 shares of KLA stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.50, for a total value of $2,698,291.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 22,110 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,322,505. This trade represents a 38.43% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 111,379 shares of company stock valued at $26,154,182. 91.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

KLA Trading Up 4.0%

KLAC stock opened at $200.47 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $223.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $183.89. KLA Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $83.22 and a fifty-two week high of $307.37. The firm has a market cap of $261.92 billion, a PE ratio of 54.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.88.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.05. KLA had a net margin of 35.57% and a return on equity of 87.66%. The business had revenue of $3.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.61 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. KLA’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 17th. This is an increase from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. KLA’s payout ratio is presently 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.