Highland Capital Management LLC Purchases New Shares in KLA Corporation $KLAC

Key Points

• Highland Capital Management purchased a new stake of 2,574 KLA shares in Q4, valued at approximately $3.13 million.
• KLA beat Q1 estimates with EPS of $9.40 (vs. $9.17 est.) and revenue of $3.42 billion (up 11.5% YoY), and analysts have raised price targets with an average target around $1,798 and a consensus "Moderate Buy" rating.
• The board approved a $7.00 billion share buyback (up to ~3.7% of shares) and the company pays a quarterly dividend of $1.90 ($7.60 annualized, ~0.4% yield).

Highland Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,574 shares of the semiconductor company's stock, valued at approximately $3,128,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Arlington Trust Co LLC boosted its position in shares of KLA by 125.0% during the third quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 36 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Triumph Capital Management bought a new stake in KLA in the third quarter worth $40,000. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. bought a new stake in KLA in the third quarter worth $43,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC boosted its holdings in KLA by 28.6% in the third quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 45 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aventura Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in KLA in the fourth quarter worth $55,000. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

KLAC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on KLA from $1,600.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Citigroup boosted their target price on KLA from $1,800.00 to $2,064.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday. Wolfe Research boosted their target price on KLA from $1,800.00 to $2,000.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 10th. Dbs Bank raised KLA from a "hold" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $2,000.00 target price on shares of KLA in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $1,798.30.

KLA Stock Up 1.1%

KLAC stock opened at $1,732.90 on Wednesday. KLA Corporation has a 1-year low of $675.27 and a 1-year high of $1,939.36. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $1,591.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $1,401.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 3.03 and a quick ratio of 2.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.50.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $9.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $9.17 by $0.23. KLA had a return on equity of 91.89% and a net margin of 35.66%.The firm had revenue of $3.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $8.41 earnings per share. The company'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. Equities analysts forecast that KLA Corporation will post 37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th were paid a $1.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $7.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. KLA's payout ratio is currently 21.51%.

KLA announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, March 12th that permits the company to buyback $7.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the semiconductor company to reacquire up to 3.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

KLA 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.