Kraft Davis & Associates LLC Raises Stake in KLA Corporation $KLAC

Kraft Davis & Associates LLC boosted its stake in KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 876.0% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,548 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,082 shares during the quarter. Kraft Davis & Associates LLC’s holdings in KLA were worth $1,372,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co lifted its holdings in shares of KLA by 829.7% in the second quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co now owns 7,456 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,249,000 after buying an additional 6,654 shares in the last quarter. Abacus FCF Advisors LLC purchased a new position in KLA during the second quarter valued at approximately $20,763,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in KLA during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,522,430,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its holdings in KLA by 978.2% during the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 858,984 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $259,164,000 after acquiring an additional 779,317 shares during the period. Finally, Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. increased its holdings in KLA by 600.7% during the 2nd quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. now owns 31,561 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $9,522,000 after acquiring an additional 27,057 shares during the period. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

KLA Stock Performance

NASDAQ:KLAC opened at $172.26 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $225.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.98, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.45. The business has a 50 day moving average of $208.49 and a 200 day moving average of $188.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 2.88 and a quick ratio of 2.03. KLA Corporation has a 1-year low of $83.22 and a 1-year high of $307.37.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.05. The business 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Monday, August 17th were issued 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 dividend yield of 0.5%. This is an increase from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. KLA’s payout ratio is 25.07%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on KLAC. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $270.00 price target on shares of KLA in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of KLA in a report on Wednesday, June 17th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on KLA from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. 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 note on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of KLA in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, KLA presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $222.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 27,701 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.69, for a total transaction of $7,359,878.69. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 263,472 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $70,001,875.68. This trade represents a 9.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Virendra A. Kirloskar sold 4,504 shares of KLA stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.50, for a total value of $880,532.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 7,972 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,558,526. This represents a 36.10% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 258,533 shares of company stock worth $55,977,470 over the last 90 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.