West Family Investments Inc. Raises Stake in KLA Corporation $KLAC

West Family Investments Inc. raised its holdings in shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 1,258.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,450 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 3,196 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in KLA were worth $1,041,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in KLAC. Allied Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in KLA in the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of KLA by 900.0% in the second quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Basepoint Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of KLA during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of KLA during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in KLA during the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on KLAC. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price objective on shares of KLA from $140.00 to $186.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $245.00 target price on KLA and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of KLA in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of KLA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $230.00 price objective 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $222.22.

KLA Stock Performance

KLAC traded up $3.38 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $188.98. 12,400,449 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,358,996. 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 12 month low of $91.02 and a 12 month high of $307.37. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $203.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $189.20. The stock has a market cap of $246.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.45.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $3.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.61 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.94 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue 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 anticipate that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 earnings per share for the current 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 issued a $0.23 dividend. This is an increase 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%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 17th. KLA’s dividend payout ratio is 25.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other KLA 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 value of $7,359,878.69. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 263,472 shares in the company, valued at approximately $70,001,875.68. This trade represents a 9.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Brian Lorig sold 59,586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.13, for a total value of $12,401,634.18. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 77,681 shares in the company, valued at $16,167,746.53. The trade was a 43.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 258,533 shares of company stock valued at $55,977,470 over the last 90 days. 91.48% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.