Key Points
- CEO Richard Wallace sold 87,568 KLA shares at an average price of $198.95, generating approximately $17.42 million. His remaining stake is valued at about $154.97 million, representing a 10.11% reduction in ownership.
- KLA reported quarterly EPS of $1.05, beating estimates of $1.00, while revenue rose 15.2% year over year to $3.66 billion. The company issued first-quarter fiscal 2027 EPS guidance of $1.06–$1.26.
- Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus with an average price target of $223.70, while KLA declared a quarterly dividend of $0.23 per share, or $0.92 annualized.
KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC - Get Free Report) CEO Richard Wallace sold 87,568 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.95, for a total transaction of $17,421,653.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 778,944 shares of the company's stock, 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 filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.
KLA Stock Up 3.9%
KLAC opened at $208.25 on Thursday. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $223.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $184.30. KLA Corporation has a 52 week low of $83.22 and a 52 week 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 stock has a market cap of $272.09 billion, a PE ratio of 56.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.45.
KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.05. KLA had a return on equity of 87.66% and a net margin of 35.57%.The firm had revenue of $3.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.61 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.94 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
KLA Increases Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Monday, August 17th will be given a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 17th. This is a positive change from KLA's previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. KLA's dividend payout ratio is presently 25.07%.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several research firms have commented on KLAC. Argus lifted their price target on shares of KLA from $175.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Zacks Research upgraded shares of KLA from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their price target on shares of KLA from $140.00 to $186.50 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of KLA in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a "sector perform" rating and issued a $180.00 target price (up from $170.00) on shares of KLA in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $223.70.
View Our Latest Research Report on KLA
Institutional Investors Weigh In On KLA
A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KLAC. Allied Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in KLA during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of KLA by 900.0% in the second quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the period. Basepoint Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of KLA in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Triumph Capital Management bought a new position in shares of KLA during the third quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of KLA during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
About KLA
(
Get Free Report)
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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