Midwest Professional Planners LTD. Acquires 10,425 Shares of KLA Corporation $KLAC

Midwest Professional Planners LTD. lifted its stake in KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 1,020.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,447 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 10,425 shares during the period. Midwest Professional Planners LTD.’s holdings in KLA were worth $3,454,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co raised its stake in KLA by 829.7% in the second quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co now owns 7,456 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,249,000 after purchasing an additional 6,654 shares in the last quarter. Abacus FCF Advisors LLC bought a new position in KLA in the 2nd quarter valued at about $20,763,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in KLA in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,522,430,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its holdings 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 worth $259,164,000 after acquiring an additional 779,317 shares during the period. Finally, Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. boosted its position in shares of KLA by 600.7% during the 2nd quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. now owns 31,561 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $9,522,000 after acquiring an additional 27,057 shares in the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at KLA

In other KLA news, EVP Mary Beth Wilkinson sold 13,802 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.50, for a total transaction of $2,698,291.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 22,110 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,322,505. This trade represents a 38.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Virendra A. Kirloskar sold 4,504 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.50, for a total transaction of $880,532.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 7,972 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,558,526. This represents a 36.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 258,533 shares of company stock worth $55,977,470. Company insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

KLA Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:KLAC opened at $170.89 on Wednesday. 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 Corporation has a 52 week low of $83.22 and a 52 week high of $307.37. The firm has a market cap of $223.28 billion, a PE ratio of 46.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.45. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $209.84 and its 200-day moving average is $188.27.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.05. KLA had a return on equity of 87.66% and a net margin of 35.57%.The business had revenue of $3.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.61 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.94 EPS. KLA’s revenue for the quarter 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 predict that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 earnings per share for the current year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Monday, August 17th were issued a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 17th. This is a boost from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.07%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KLAC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citic Securities upped their target price on KLA from $135.00 to $197.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of KLA in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $245.00 target price on shares of KLA and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of KLA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. One research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $222.22.

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.