KLA Corporation $KLAC Shares Acquired by Chesapeake Wealth Management

Chesapeake Wealth Management grew its position in shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 1,792.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,417 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,078 shares during the quarter. Chesapeake Wealth Management’s holdings in KLA were worth $1,936,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in KLAC. McIlrath & Eck LLC boosted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 6 shares in the last quarter. Motco increased its holdings in KLA by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Motco now owns 405 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $492,000 after buying an additional 7 shares in the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its position in shares of KLA by 17.1% in the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 48 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 7 shares during the period. SouthState Bank Corp raised its position in shares of KLA by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. SouthState Bank Corp now owns 111 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $135,000 after acquiring an additional 7 shares during the period. Finally, Root Financial Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company set a $245.00 price target on KLA and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Zacks Research upgraded KLA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a report on Monday, July 20th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of KLA in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $260.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $222.22.

KLA Stock Down 2.6%

NASDAQ KLAC opened at $170.89 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $209.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $188.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.88. The company has a market cap of $223.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.45. KLA Corporation has a one year low of $83.22 and a one year high of $307.37.

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. The company had revenue of $3.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.61 billion. KLA had a net margin of 35.57% and a return on equity of 87.66%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.94 EPS. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at KLA

In other news, EVP Brian Lorig sold 59,586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.13, for a total transaction of $12,401,634.18. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 77,681 shares in the company, valued at $16,167,746.53. The trade was a 43.41% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 27,701 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.69, for a total value of $7,359,878.69. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 263,472 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $70,001,875.68. This trade represents a 9.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 258,533 shares of company stock worth $55,977,470 in the last 90 days. 91.48% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.