Range Advisory LLC Grows Position in KLA Corporation $KLAC

Range Advisory LLC grew its stake in KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 1,222.6% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,621 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 5,196 shares during the period. Range Advisory LLC’s holdings in KLA were worth $1,696,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. lifted its position in KLA by 1,900.0% during the second quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. now owns 520 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $157,000 after purchasing an additional 494 shares during the period. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of KLA in the 2nd quarter worth $201,000. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of KLA by 1,400.0% during the 2nd quarter. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC now owns 300 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $91,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LP raised its holdings in shares of KLA by 696.1% during the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 326,349 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $98,463,000 after acquiring an additional 285,355 shares during the period. Finally, Optimize Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of KLA by 896.5% during the 2nd quarter. Optimize Financial Inc. now owns 20,768 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $6,266,000 after acquiring an additional 18,684 shares during the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on KLAC. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of KLA in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on KLA from $200.00 to $238.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $260.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $222.22.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other KLA news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 27,701 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.69, for a total transaction of $7,359,878.69. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 263,472 shares in the company, valued at approximately $70,001,875.68. This represents a 9.51% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Virendra Kirloskar sold 4,504 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 7,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,558,526. The trade was a 36.10% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 258,533 shares of company stock valued at $55,977,470. 91.48% of the stock is owned by insiders.

KLA Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:KLAC opened at $185.60 on Tuesday. KLA Corporation has a 52 week low of $87.83 and a 52 week high of $307.37. The company’s 50 day moving average is $203.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $189.20. The company has a market cap of $242.50 billion, a PE ratio of 50.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a current ratio of 2.88, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $3.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.61 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. The firm’s 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. Equities analysts predict that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA Increases Dividend

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

About KLA

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.