First Bank & Trust Grows Stake in KLA Corporation $KLAC

First Bank & Trust raised its holdings in shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 1,026.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,450 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,055 shares during the period. First Bank & Trust’s holdings in KLA were worth $1,343,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in KLAC. Ares Financial Consulting LLC boosted its position in shares of KLA by 901.6% in the 2nd quarter. Ares Financial Consulting LLC now owns 631 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $190,000 after purchasing an additional 568 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC increased its position in KLA by 750.0% during the 2nd quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 1,275 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $385,000 after buying an additional 1,125 shares in the last quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. acquired a new position in KLA during the 2nd quarter valued at about $336,000. Allied Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in KLA in the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co raised its stake in KLA by 829.7% in the second quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co now owns 7,456 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,249,000 after buying an additional 6,654 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of KLA in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $270.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of KLA in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $260.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $230.00 price target on shares of KLA in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $223.70.

KLA Stock Down 2.7%

KLA stock opened at $192.74 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $223.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $183.55. 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 company has a market cap of $251.77 billion, a PE ratio of 52.56, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.45. KLA Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $83.22 and a fifty-two week high of $307.37.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $3.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.61 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.94 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 EPS for the current year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 17th will be given a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 17th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. This is a boost from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. KLA’s payout ratio is 25.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling at KLA

In other KLA news, EVP Mary Beth Wilkinson sold 13,802 shares of KLA stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.50, for a total transaction of $2,698,291.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 22,110 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,322,505. The trade was a 38.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Virendra A. Kirloskar sold 4,504 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.50, for a total transaction of $880,532.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 7,972 shares in the company, valued at $1,558,526. This trade represents a 36.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 111,379 shares of company stock valued at $26,154,182. 91.48% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.