Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC Acquires New Stake in KLA Corporation $KLAC

Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 3,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $905,000.

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

Insider Activity

In other KLA news, EVP Mary Beth Wilkinson sold 14,392 shares of KLA stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.30, for a total value of $4,106,037.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 53,367 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,225,605.10. The trade was a 21.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 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 directly owned 77,681 shares in the company, 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. Insiders have sold a total of 258,533 shares of company stock worth $55,977,470 over the last 90 days. 91.48% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

KLA Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ KLAC opened at $172.26 on Thursday. KLA Corporation has a 12-month low of $83.22 and a 12-month high of $307.37. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $208.49 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $188.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $225.07 billion, a PE ratio of 46.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 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 posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $3.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.61 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 87.66% and a net margin of 35.57%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.94 earnings per share. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Monday, August 17th were paid 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.07%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KLAC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of KLA from $200.00 to $238.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of KLA in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $325.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of KLA in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Zacks Research raised KLA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $222.22.

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.