KLA Corporation $KLAC Shares Acquired by Lipe & Dalton

Lipe & Dalton raised its holdings in shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 900.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,700 shares during the quarter. Lipe & Dalton’s holdings in KLA were worth $905,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of KLAC. Basepoint Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of KLA during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of KLA in the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new stake in KLA in the third quarter valued at $40,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its holdings in KLA by 17.1% in the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 48 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 7 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC boosted its stake in KLA by 36.4% during the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 60 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 16 shares during the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP MaryBeth Wilkinson sold 13,802 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.50, for a total transaction of $2,698,291.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 22,110 shares in the company, valued at $4,322,505. The trade was a 38.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Brian Lorig sold 59,586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.13, for a total value of $12,401,634.18. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 77,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,167,746.53. The trade was a 43.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 258,533 shares of company stock worth $55,977,470. 91.48% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

KLA Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ KLAC traded up $3.38 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $188.98. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 12,400,449 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,358,996. KLA Corporation has a 1-year low of $91.02 and a 1-year high of $307.37. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $203.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $189.20. 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 firm has a market cap of $246.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.45.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 35.57% and a return on equity of 87.66%. The firm had revenue of $3.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.61 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. KLA’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 17th. This is a positive change from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. KLA’s payout ratio is currently 25.07%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $270.00 target price on shares of KLA in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Zacks Research raised shares of KLA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of KLA in a report on Friday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company set a $245.00 price objective on KLA and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $222.22.

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.