KLA Corporation $KLAC Shares Bought by Cunning Capital Partners LP

Cunning Capital Partners LP raised its position in KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 900.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 79,050 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 71,145 shares during the quarter. KLA accounts for approximately 9.6% of Cunning Capital Partners LP’s portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Cunning Capital Partners LP’s holdings in KLA were worth $23,850,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Monetary Management Group Inc. increased its position in KLA by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Monetary Management Group Inc. now owns 3,773 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,380,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in KLA by 1.6% during the second quarter. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,043 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $934,000 after buying an additional 16 shares in the last quarter. WFA of San Diego LLC purchased a new stake in KLA during the second quarter worth approximately $90,000. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in shares of KLA by 13.8% in the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 5,118 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,584,000 after acquiring an additional 619 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Seven Mile Advisory acquired a new stake in KLA in the 3rd quarter valued at $444,000. 86.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of KLA in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Bank of America boosted their price target on KLA from $210.00 to $317.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price objective on shares of KLA from $140.00 to $186.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Susquehanna set a $215.00 price objective on shares of KLA and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, KLA has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $222.22.

KLA Stock Up 1.8%

NASDAQ KLAC traded up $3.38 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $188.98. 12,400,449 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,358,996. KLA Corporation has a 1-year low of $91.02 and a 1-year high of $307.37. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $203.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $189.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.88, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93. The company has a market cap of $246.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.45.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $3.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.61 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 87.66% and a net margin of 35.57%.KLA’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.94 EPS. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 EPS for the current year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Monday, August 17th were issued a $0.23 dividend. 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%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 17th. KLA’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.07%.

Insider Activity

In other KLA news, CEO Richard Wallace sold 87,568 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.95, for a total transaction of $17,421,653.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 778,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $154,970,908.80. This trade represents a 10.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP MaryBeth Wilkinson sold 14,392 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.30, for a total transaction of $4,106,037.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 53,367 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,225,605.10. The trade was a 21.24% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 258,533 shares of company stock worth $55,977,470 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

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.