KLA Corporation $KLAC Position Boosted by Lipe & Dalton

Lipe & Dalton boosted its holdings in KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 900.0% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 3,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,700 shares during the quarter. Lipe & Dalton’s holdings in KLA were worth $905,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. McIlrath & Eck LLC boosted its position in KLA by 6.8% during the 1st quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 94 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $139,000 after acquiring an additional 6 shares during the period. Motco increased its holdings in shares of KLA by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Motco now owns 405 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $492,000 after purchasing an additional 7 shares during the period. Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its stake in shares of KLA by 17.1% during the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 48 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 7 shares in the last quarter. SouthState Bank Corp lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 7 shares during the period. Finally, Root Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in KLA by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 796 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $967,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of KLA in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $195.00 price objective (down from $220.00) on shares of KLA in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Susquehanna set a $215.00 target price on KLA and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Scotiabank set a $200.00 target price on KLA in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, KLA has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $222.22.

KLA Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ KLAC traded up $3.38 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $188.98. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 12,400,449 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,358,996. 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 50 day moving average price of $203.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $189.20. KLA Corporation has a one year low of $91.02 and a one year high of $307.37. The company has a market cap of $246.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.45.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $3.66 billion during 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 revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 EPS for the current year.

KLA Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at KLA

In related news, CEO Richard Wallace sold 87,568 shares of KLA stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.95, for a total value of $17,421,653.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 778,944 shares in the company, valued at $154,970,908.80. The trade was a 10.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Virendra A. Kirloskar sold 4,504 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.50, for a total value of $880,532.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 7,972 shares in the company, valued at $1,558,526. This trade represents a 36.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 258,533 shares of company stock worth $55,977,470. 91.48% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.