KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) CEO Richard Wallace Sells 4,512 Shares

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) CEO Richard Wallace sold 4,512 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,794.00, for a total value of $8,094,528.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 75,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $136,155,630. This trade represents a 5.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

KLA Price Performance

Shares of KLAC traded down $33.84 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $1,811.35. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,028,735 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,080,470. The company has a current ratio of 3.03, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. KLA Corporation has a 1-year low of $740.44 and a 1-year high of $1,939.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $236.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.50. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $1,615.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1,420.64.

KLA shares are scheduled to split on Friday, June 12th. The 10-1 split was announced on Thursday, May 7th. The newly created shares will be payable to shareholders after the closing bell on Thursday, June 11th.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $9.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.17 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $3.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.37 billion. KLA had a net margin of 35.66% and a return on equity of 91.89%. The business’s revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $8.41 EPS. KLA has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 8.870-10.870 EPS. Analysts predict that KLA Corporation will post 37.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th will be paid a $2.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 18th. This is an increase from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.90. This represents a $9.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. KLA’s payout ratio is currently 21.51%.

KLA declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, March 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $7.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to reacquire up to 3.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Westpac Banking Corp lifted its position in shares of KLA by 11.2% during the third quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 9,276 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $10,005,000 after purchasing an additional 932 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC boosted its position in KLA by 4,023.1% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,072 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,303,000 after buying an additional 1,046 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of KLA by 86.6% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 4,063 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,937,000 after acquiring an additional 1,886 shares in the last quarter. BOKF NA lifted its stake in shares of KLA by 16.6% in the third quarter. BOKF NA now owns 8,534 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $9,205,000 after acquiring an additional 1,218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Close Asset Management Ltd purchased a new position in KLA in the third quarter valued at about $133,209,000. 86.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on KLAC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of KLA from $1,950.00 to $2,000.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of KLA from $1,600.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on KLA from $1,700.00 to $1,910.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn lifted their target price on KLA from $1,400.00 to $1,865.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on KLA from $1,800.00 to $2,064.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,838.48.

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.