Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. Grows Position in KLA Corporation $KLAC

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its position in shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 1.7% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 25,341 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 418 shares during the quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.’s holdings in KLA were worth $22,699,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in KLAC. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in KLA by 40.1% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,463 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,674,000 after buying an additional 705 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its stake in KLA by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 17,190 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $11,686,000 after buying an additional 978 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its stake in KLA by 18.4% during the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 6,077 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,131,000 after buying an additional 945 shares during the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. grew its stake in shares of KLA by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 877 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $596,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of KLA by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 16,954 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $11,525,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on KLAC. Barclays upgraded KLA from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $750.00 to $1,200.00 in a research note on Monday. UBS Group lifted their target price on KLA from $970.00 to $1,135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on KLA from $900.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. TD Cowen lifted their target price on KLA from $800.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $1,093.00 target price on KLA and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $1,040.65.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ahmad A. Khan sold 13,716 shares of KLA stock in a transaction on Friday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $881.50, for a total transaction of $12,090,654.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 27,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,128,418. The trade was a 33.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Brian Lorig sold 8,049 shares of KLA stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $913.68, for a total value of $7,354,210.32. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 11,479 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,488,132.72. This represents a 41.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 32,566 shares of company stock valued at $29,313,522. 91.48% of the stock is owned by insiders.

KLA Stock Down 0.5%

KLA stock opened at $1,147.43 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 2.62 and a quick ratio of 1.83. KLA Corporation has a 1-year low of $551.33 and a 1-year high of $1,161.18. The company has a market cap of $151.09 billion, a PE ratio of 37.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.50. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $989.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $871.23.

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

KLA Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, August 18th were issued a dividend of $1.90 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 18th. This represents a $7.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. KLA’s payout ratio is currently 25.01%.

About KLA

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.