KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) EVP Mary Beth Wilkinson Sells 4,295 Shares

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) EVP Mary Beth Wilkinson sold 4,295 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.59, for a total transaction of $822,879.05. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 35,912 shares in the company, valued at $6,880,380.08. The trade was a 10.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Mary Beth Wilkinson also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, July 1st, Mary Beth Wilkinson sold 14,392 shares of KLA stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.30, for a total transaction of $4,106,037.60.

KLA Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:KLAC traded up $12.70 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $195.45. The stock had a trading volume of 13,235,688 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,682,409. KLA Corporation has a 1 year low of $83.22 and a 1 year high of $307.37. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $223.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $182.05. The company has a market capitalization of $255.31 billion, a PE ratio of 53.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 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 released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $3.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.61 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.94 EPS. The firm’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. As a group, equities analysts predict that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th were paid a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 18th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.07%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On KLA

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of KLAC. Monetary Management Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of KLA by 0.4% in the second quarter. Monetary Management Group Inc. now owns 3,773 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,380,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in KLA by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,043 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $934,000 after purchasing an additional 16 shares in the last quarter. WFA of San Diego LLC acquired a new position in KLA in the 2nd quarter valued at about $90,000. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in KLA by 13.8% in the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 5,118 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,584,000 after purchasing an additional 619 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Seven Mile Advisory purchased a new position in KLA in the 3rd quarter valued at about $444,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of KLA in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $250.00 price target on KLA and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $245.00 price target on KLA and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Bank of America raised their price objective on KLA from $210.00 to $317.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $260.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a report on Thursday, July 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, KLA currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $223.70.

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.