Caxton Associates LLP Buys New Holdings in KLA Corporation $KLAC

Caxton Associates LLP bought a new stake in KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 1,086 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $738,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in KLA by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,564,622 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $9,221,230,000 after purchasing an additional 80,154 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in KLA by 27.9% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,852,814 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,259,543,000 after buying an additional 404,634 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in KLA by 95,141.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,674,347 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,138,221,000 after buying an additional 1,672,589 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in KLA by 18.0% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 1,645,599 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,026,983,000 after buying an additional 251,339 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its holdings in KLA by 9.0% during the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 1,586,781 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,078,526,000 after buying an additional 131,620 shares in the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

KLAC has been the subject of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on KLA in a report on Thursday, July 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $980.00 price target for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of KLA in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $920.00 target price (up from $870.00) on shares of KLA in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. TD Cowen upped their target price on KLA from $800.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on KLA from $1,035.00 to $1,060.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $890.59.

Insider Transactions at KLA

In other news, CAO Virendra A. Kirloskar sold 39 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $891.50, for a total transaction of $34,768.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 2,616 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,332,164. This represents a 1.47% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ahmad A. Khan sold 13,716 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $881.50, for a total value of $12,090,654.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 27,372 shares in the company, valued at $24,128,418. This represents a 33.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 32,605 shares of company stock worth $29,348,291 over the last quarter. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

KLA Price Performance

KLA stock opened at $932.63 on Thursday. KLA Corporation has a 12 month low of $551.33 and a 12 month high of $959.26. The company has a current ratio of 2.62, a quick ratio of 1.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $904.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $796.83. The company has a market cap of $123.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.69, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.48.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The semiconductor company reported $9.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.53 by $0.85. KLA had a return on equity of 112.41% and a net margin of 33.41%.The business had revenue of $3.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.08 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $6.60 earnings per share. KLA’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.6% on a year-over-year basis. KLA has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 7.760-9.300 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that KLA Corporation will post 31.59 EPS for the current year.

KLA Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 18th were given a dividend of $1.90 per share. This represents a $7.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 18th. KLA’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.01%.

KLA Profile

KLA Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of process control, process-enabling, and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related electronics industries worldwide. It operates through three segments: Semiconductor Process Control; Specialty Semiconductor Process; and PCB and Component Inspection.