Continuum Advisory LLC Acquires 7,344 Shares of KLA Corporation $KLAC

Continuum Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) by 1,015.8% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,067 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,344 shares during the period. Continuum Advisory LLC’s holdings in KLA were worth $2,434,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in KLAC. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in KLA by 928.9% in the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 14,821,622 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,471,832,000 after acquiring an additional 13,381,153 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of KLA in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,522,430,000. Railway Pension Investments Ltd boosted its position in shares of KLA by 960.4% during the second quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd now owns 926,652 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $279,580,000 after buying an additional 839,265 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its position in shares of KLA by 978.2% during the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 858,984 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $259,164,000 after buying an additional 779,317 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nykredit A S bought a new stake in KLA during the second quarter worth $177,385,000. 86.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on KLAC shares. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of KLA from $210.00 to $317.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $260.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of KLA in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $180.00 price target (up from $170.00) on shares of KLA in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. UBS Group cut their price target on KLA from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $195.00 price target (down from $220.00) on shares of KLA in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, KLA has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $222.22.

KLA Trading Up 0.8%

KLA stock opened at $172.26 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.88. KLA Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $83.22 and a fifty-two week high of $307.37. The stock has a market cap of $225.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.98, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.45. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $208.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $188.46.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $3.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.61 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.94 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that KLA Corporation will post 5.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 17th were given a dividend of $0.23 per share. This is a boost from KLA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 17th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio is 25.07%.

Insider Activity at KLA

In related news, CAO Virendra A. Kirloskar sold 4,504 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.50, for a total value of $880,532.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 7,972 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,558,526. This represents a 36.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 87,568 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.95, for a total transaction of $17,421,653.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 778,944 shares in the company, valued at $154,970,908.80. This represents a 10.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 258,533 shares of company stock valued at $55,977,470 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

KLA 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.