Stock Traders Buy High Volume of KLA Put Options (NASDAQ:KLAC)

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) saw unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Investors bought 39,161 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 1,456% compared to the average volume of 2,517 put options.

KLA Trading Up 0.8%

KLAC stock traded up $2.14 during trading on Monday, reaching $256.68. The company had a trading volume of 9,950,192 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,818,369. KLA has a 52 week low of $83.22 and a 52 week high of $265.43. The company has a market cap of $335.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 72.56, a PEG ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 1.50. The business has a 50 day moving average of $186.37 and a 200 day moving average of $155.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 3.03 and a quick ratio of 2.11.

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

KLA announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, March 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $7.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to purchase up to 3.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

KLA Cuts Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KLAC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. New Street Research raised their target price on shares of KLA from $146.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of KLA from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of KLA from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Zacks Research lowered shares of KLA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 16th. Finally, Berenberg Bank upped their price objective on shares of KLA from $177.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Twenty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $342.44.

Insider Activity at KLA

In other news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 45,120 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $221.34, for a total transaction of $9,986,725.44. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 713,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $157,996,990.71. This trade represents a 5.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of KLA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of KLAC. Westpac Banking Corp grew its position in KLA by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 9,276 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $10,005,000 after purchasing an additional 932 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC increased its position in KLA by 4,023.1% during the fourth quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,072 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,303,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of KLA by 86.6% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 4,063 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,937,000 after acquiring an additional 1,886 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in KLA by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 69,563 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $74,898,000 after acquiring an additional 8,973 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BOKF NA raised its holdings in shares of KLA by 16.6% during the third quarter. BOKF NA now owns 8,534 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $9,205,000 after purchasing an additional 1,218 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

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.