KLA Corporation $KLAC Shares Bought by Greenspring Advisors LLC

Greenspring Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 1,986.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,401 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 3,238 shares during the period. Greenspring Advisors LLC’s holdings in KLA were worth $1,026,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Allied Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in KLA during the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of KLA by 900.0% during the 2nd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Basepoint Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of KLA during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of KLA in the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in KLA during the fourth quarter worth $41,000. 86.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

KLA Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of KLAC opened at $172.26 on Thursday. KLA Corporation has a 52-week low of $83.22 and a 52-week high of $307.37. The stock has a market cap 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 firm’s fifty day moving average is $208.49 and its two-hundred day moving average is $188.46. The company has a quick ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 2.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $3.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.61 billion. KLA had a net margin of 35.57% and a return on equity of 87.66%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. Research analysts forecast that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at KLA

In other news, EVP Mary Beth Wilkinson sold 14,392 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.30, for a total value of $4,106,037.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 53,367 shares in the company, valued at $15,225,605.10. This represents a 21.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 27,701 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.69, for a total value of $7,359,878.69. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 263,472 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $70,001,875.68. This represents a 9.51% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 258,533 shares of company stock worth $55,977,470. 91.48% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on KLAC. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of KLA from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $180.00 price target (up from $170.00) on shares of KLA in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Citic Securities increased their price target on KLA from $135.00 to $197.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a research report on Monday, July 20th. One equities research 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, KLA presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $222.22.

About KLA

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.