Insider Selling: KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) CFO Sells $7,359,878.69 in Stock

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) CFO Bren 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 value of $7,359,878.69. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 263,472 shares in the company, valued at approximately $70,001,875.68. This trade represents a 9.51% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

KLA Stock Performance

NASDAQ:KLAC opened at $221.18 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $214.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $172.21. The company has a market cap of $288.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.60, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 3.03. KLA Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $83.22 and a fifty-two week high of $307.37.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $9.40 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $8.48. KLA had a return on equity of 91.89% and a net margin of 35.66%.The company had revenue of $3.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.84 earnings per share. KLA’s revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. KLA has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 8.870-10.870 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that KLA Corporation will post 3.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, March 12th that permits the company to repurchase $7.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the semiconductor company to purchase up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

KLA Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 18th were given a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 18th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. KLA’s payout ratio is presently 26.06%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on KLAC shares. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $218.00 price target (up from $177.00) on shares of KLA in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on KLA from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. New Street Research raised their target price on KLA from $146.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Weiss Ratings lowered KLA from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Berenberg Bank boosted their price target on KLA from $177.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, KLA presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.34.

Institutional Trading of KLA

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Basepoint Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of KLA during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of KLA during the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in KLA during the 4th quarter worth $41,000. Aventura Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in KLA in the 4th quarter worth about $55,000. Finally, Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its position in KLA by 17.1% in the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 48 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 7 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

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.