Lowery Thomas LLC Buys 5,481 Shares of KLA Corporation $KLAC

Lowery Thomas LLC grew its stake in KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 900.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,090 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 5,481 shares during the period. KLA makes up about 0.9% of Lowery Thomas LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Lowery Thomas LLC’s holdings in KLA were worth $1,837,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in KLAC. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of KLA by 928.9% during the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 14,821,622 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,471,832,000 after acquiring an additional 13,381,153 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in KLA in the second quarter valued at $2,522,430,000. Railway Pension Investments Ltd raised its position in KLA by 960.4% during the second quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd now owns 926,652 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $279,580,000 after purchasing an additional 839,265 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its stake in KLA by 978.2% during the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 858,984 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $259,164,000 after purchasing an additional 779,317 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nykredit A S bought a new stake in KLA during the second quarter worth about $177,385,000. Institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

KLA Stock Up 0.8%

KLAC opened at $172.26 on Thursday. KLA Corporation has a 12 month low of $83.22 and a 12 month high of $307.37. 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 business’s 50-day moving average price is $208.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $188.46. The company has a market cap of $225.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.45.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its quarterly 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 business 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 revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.94 EPS. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 EPS for the current year.

KLA Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on KLAC. Citic Securities increased their price objective on KLA from $135.00 to $197.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group dropped their target price on KLA from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of KLA in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of KLA in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn lifted their price target on shares of KLA from $140.00 to $186.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, KLA has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $222.22.

Insider Transactions at KLA

In other KLA news, EVP Mary Beth Wilkinson sold 14,392 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were 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 owned 53,367 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,225,605.10. This represents a 21.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, EVP Brian Lorig sold 59,586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 77,681 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,167,746.53. This trade represents a 43.41% decrease in their position. 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 valued at $55,977,470. 91.48% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

KLA Company 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.