Munich Reinsurance Co Stock Corp in Munich Increases Stake in KLA Corporation $KLAC

Munich Reinsurance Co Stock Corp in Munich grew its stake in shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 428.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 123,978 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 100,532 shares during the quarter. Munich Reinsurance Co Stock Corp in Munich’s holdings in KLA were worth $37,405,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in KLAC. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co raised its stake 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 valued at $2,249,000 after acquiring an additional 6,654 shares during the last quarter. Abacus FCF Advisors LLC purchased a new position in KLA during the 2nd quarter valued at about $20,763,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in KLA during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,522,430,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in KLA by 978.2% during the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 858,984 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $259,164,000 after purchasing an additional 779,317 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. lifted its holdings in KLA by 600.7% in the 2nd quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. now owns 31,561 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $9,522,000 after buying an additional 27,057 shares during the period. 86.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on KLAC. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of KLA in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “hold” rating and set a $195.00 price objective (down from $220.00) on shares of KLA in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of KLA in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. One equities research 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $222.22.

KLA Trading Up 7.3%

NASDAQ:KLAC opened at $185.60 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $242.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.61, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 2.88 and a quick ratio of 2.03. KLA Corporation has a one year low of $87.83 and a one year high of $307.37. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $205.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $188.63.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.05. KLA had a net margin of 35.57% and a return on equity of 87.66%. The business had revenue of $3.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.61 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.94 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter 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, analysts forecast that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at KLA

In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 27,701 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.69, for a total transaction of $7,359,878.69. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 263,472 shares in the company, valued at $70,001,875.68. This trade represents a 9.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP MaryBeth Wilkinson sold 14,392 shares of KLA stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 53,367 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,225,605.10. This represents a 21.24% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold 258,533 shares of company stock valued at $55,977,470 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

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.