Bren Higgins Sells 2,254 Shares of KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Stock

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) CFO Bren Higgins sold 2,254 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,237.01, for a total transaction of $2,788,220.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 32,154 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,774,819.54. The trade was a 6.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

KLA Trading Up 1.9%

NASDAQ:KLAC opened at $1,245.67 on Friday. KLA Corporation has a 12 month low of $551.33 and a 12 month high of $1,284.47. The company has a current ratio of 2.69, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $1,174.43 and its 200 day moving average is $1,014.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $163.67 billion, a PE ratio of 39.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.44.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The semiconductor company reported $8.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.47 by $0.34. The business had revenue of $3.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.17 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 107.26% and a net margin of 33.83%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $7.33 earnings per share. KLA has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 7.920-9.480 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that KLA Corporation will post 31.59 earnings per share for the current year.

KLA Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, November 17th were paid a $1.90 dividend. This represents a $7.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 17th. KLA’s payout ratio is currently 23.86%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on KLAC shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of KLA from $1,115.00 to $1,250.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Wolfe Research boosted their target price on shares of KLA from $1,250.00 to $1,500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. UBS Group raised their price target on KLA from $1,135.00 to $1,260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on KLA from $1,200.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Citic Securities raised their target price on KLA from $950.00 to $1,350.00 in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, KLA currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,275.54.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On KLA

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KLAC. Strs Ohio purchased a new position in KLA in the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,473,000. Dorsey Wright & Associates purchased a new stake in shares of KLA during the second quarter valued at approximately $292,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of KLA by 37.7% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 41,784 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $28,400,000 after purchasing an additional 11,442 shares during the last quarter. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments increased its stake in shares of KLA by 631.6% in the second quarter. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments now owns 15,290 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $13,603,000 after buying an additional 13,200 shares during the period. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC raised its holdings in KLA by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 16,370 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $11,128,000 after buying an additional 1,389 shares during the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.