Proficio Capital Partners LLC Takes $1.81 Million Position in KLA Corporation $KLAC

Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 5,988 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,807,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. McIlrath & Eck LLC lifted its holdings in shares of KLA by 6.8% during the first quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 94 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $139,000 after purchasing an additional 6 shares during the period. Motco increased its holdings in KLA by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Motco now owns 405 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $492,000 after purchasing an additional 7 shares during the period. Nemes Rush Group LLC increased its holdings 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 period. SouthState Bank Corp raised its position in KLA by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. SouthState Bank Corp now owns 111 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $135,000 after purchasing an additional 7 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Root Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in KLA by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 796 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $967,000 after buying an additional 10 shares during the period. 86.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

KLA Trading Down 0.1%

KLAC opened at $175.45 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $211.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $188.11. KLA Corporation has a 1-year low of $83.22 and a 1-year high of $307.37. The company has a market cap of $229.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 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 issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $3.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.61 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.94 EPS. The firm’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. Analysts predict that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KLA Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on KLAC. UBS Group set a $240.00 price target on KLA and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of KLA in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Susquehanna set a $215.00 target price on shares of KLA and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of KLA in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, KLA has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $223.70.

Insider Transactions at KLA

In other KLA news, CAO Virendra A. Kirloskar sold 4,504 shares of KLA stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.50, for a total transaction of $880,532.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 7,972 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,558,526. The trade was a 36.10% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 87,568 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.95, for a total value of $17,421,653.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 778,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $154,970,908.80. This represents a 10.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 258,533 shares of company stock valued at $55,977,470. 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.