KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) CFO Bren Higgins Sells 27,701 Shares of Stock

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) CFO Bren Higgins sold 27,701 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.69, for a total value of $7,359,878.69. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 263,472 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $70,001,875.68. This represents a 9.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

KLA Stock Performance

KLAC stock traded down $2.24 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $233.31. The company had a trading volume of 12,030,466 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,543,373. The firm has a market capitalization of $304.77 billion, a PE ratio of 66.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.41. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $211.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $170.04. KLA Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $83.22 and a fifty-two week high of $307.37. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 3.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $9.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $8.48. The company had revenue of $3.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.37 billion. KLA had a net margin of 35.66% and a return on equity of 91.89%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. KLA has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 8.870-10.870 EPS. Analysts anticipate that KLA Corporation will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

KLA Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 18th were paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 18th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.06%.

KLA announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, March 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $7.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to repurchase up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on KLAC. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $2,250.00 price target (up from $1,700.00) on shares of KLA in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $275.00 price target on shares of KLA in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their target price on shares of KLA from $140.00 to $186.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of KLA from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, New Street Research boosted their target price on shares of KLA from $146.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, KLA currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.34.

Institutional Trading of KLA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Basepoint Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of KLA in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of KLA in the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of KLA during the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Aventura Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of KLA during the 4th quarter worth approximately $55,000. Finally, Nemes Rush Group LLC grew its stake in KLA by 17.1% in the 4th 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. Institutional investors own 86.65% 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.