Investors Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC)

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $2,250.00 price objective (up from $1,700.00) on shares of KLA in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on KLA from $170.00 to $191.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Susquehanna increased their target price on KLA from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $2,500.00 price objective on KLA and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on KLA from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $342.44.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other KLA news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 45,120 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $221.34, for a total transaction of $9,986,725.44. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Westpac Banking Corp increased its position in shares of KLA by 11.2% during the third quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 9,276 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $10,005,000 after acquiring an additional 932 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,046 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of KLA by 86.6% during 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 during the last quarter. BOKF NA increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 1,218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its position in shares of KLA by 14.8% during the third quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 69,563 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $74,898,000 after acquiring an additional 8,973 shares during the last quarter. 86.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

KLA Trading Up 2.3%

KLA stock traded up $5.37 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $242.70. The stock had a trading volume of 6,670,263 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,881,846. KLA has a twelve month low of $83.22 and a twelve month high of $267.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $317.04 billion, a PE ratio of 68.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 3.03. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $190.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $157.57.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $9.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $8.48. KLA had a return on equity of 91.89% and a net margin of 35.66%.The firm had revenue of $3.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. KLA has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 8.870-10.870 EPS. Analysts expect that KLA will post 3.37 EPS for the current year.

KLA declared that its board has approved a stock 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 repurchase up to 3.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

KLA Cuts Dividend

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

About KLA

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.