Midwest Professional Planners LTD. Has $3.45 Million Holdings in KLA Corporation $KLAC

Key Points

• Midwest Professional Planners increased its KLA holdings by 1,020.1% in the second quarter, ending with 11,447 shares valued at approximately $3.45 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 86.65% of KLA.
• KLA exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $1.05 in earnings per share versus the $1.00 consensus and $3.66 billion in revenue, up 15.2% year over year. Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus with an average price target of $222.22.
• Recent insider activity was negative, with executives selling 258,533 shares worth nearly $56 million over the past 90 days. KLA also pays a quarterly dividend of $0.23 per share, equivalent to a 0.5% yield.

Midwest Professional Planners LTD. increased its holdings in shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC - Free Report) by 1,020.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 11,447 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after acquiring an additional 10,425 shares during the period. Midwest Professional Planners LTD.'s holdings in KLA were worth $3,454,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of KLAC. Basepoint Wealth LLC acquired a new position in KLA in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of KLA during the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of KLA in the third quarter valued at $40,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 7 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of KLA by 36.4% in the first quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 60 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $88,000 after buying an additional 16 shares during the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

KLA Price Performance

KLAC opened at $170.89 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $223.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.45. KLA Corporation has a 12 month low of $83.22 and a 12 month high of $307.37. The company has a quick ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 2.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $209.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $188.27.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC - Get Free Report) last announced 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. The firm had revenue of $3.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.61 billion. KLA had a net margin of 35.57% and a return on equity of 87.66%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.94 EPS. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 EPS for the current year.

KLA Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other KLA news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 87,568 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.95, for a total transaction of $17,421,653.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 778,944 shares in the company, valued at $154,970,908.80. This trade represents a 10.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Virendra A. Kirloskar sold 4,504 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.50, for a total value of $880,532.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 7,972 shares in the company, valued at $1,558,526. The trade was a 36.10% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 258,533 shares of company stock worth $55,977,470 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 91.48% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on KLAC shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of KLA in a report on Friday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company set a $245.00 target price on shares of KLA and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. TD Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $260.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $260.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Citic Securities raised their price target on shares of KLA from $135.00 to $197.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, KLA has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $222.22.

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.

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