HB Wealth Management LLC Boosts Stake in KLA Corporation $KLAC

Key Points

• HB Wealth Management increased its KLA stake by 927.1% in the second quarter, bringing its holdings to 88,287 shares valued at approximately $26.6 billion. Institutional investors collectively own 86.65% of the company.
• Analysts maintain a positive outlook, with a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $222.22; individual targets range from $215 to $317.
• KLA exceeded quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting $1.05 EPS and $3.66 billion in revenue, while revenue rose 15.2% year over year. The company also declared an annualized dividend of $0.92 per share, although insiders have sold roughly $56 million of stock over the past 90 days.

HB Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC - Free Report) by 927.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 88,287 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after purchasing an additional 79,691 shares during the quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC's holdings in KLA were worth $26,637,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Basepoint Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in KLA in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of KLA during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of KLA during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC grew its stake in shares of KLA by 17.1% during the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 48 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 7 shares during the period. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC grew its stake in shares of KLA by 36.4% during the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 60 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 16 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.65% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on KLAC. Susquehanna set a $215.00 target price on shares of KLA and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $250.00 price target on shares of KLA and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of KLA from $210.00 to $317.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and set a $260.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $245.00 target price on shares of KLA and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $222.22.

KLA Trading Up 7.3%

Shares of KLAC opened at $185.60 on Friday. 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 1 year low of $87.83 and a 1 year high of $307.37. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $205.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $188.63. The firm has a market cap of $242.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.45.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.05. KLA had a net margin of 35.57% and a return on equity of 87.66%. The firm had revenue of $3.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.61 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.94 earnings per share. The company'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. On average, equities analysts expect that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 17th were issued a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 17th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. This is an increase from KLA's previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. KLA's payout ratio is presently 25.07%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 27,701 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Brian Lorig sold 59,586 shares of KLA stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 13th. The stock was 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 directly owned 77,681 shares in the company, valued at $16,167,746.53. This trade represents a 43.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 258,533 shares of company stock worth $55,977,470. 91.48% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.

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