KLA Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:KLAC)

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors bought 12,634 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 64% compared to the average volume of 7,723 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling at KLA

In other news, CFO Bren D. Higgins sold 27,701 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.69, for a total transaction of $7,359,878.69. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 263,472 shares in the company, valued at $70,001,875.68. This trade represents a 9.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Mary Beth Wilkinson sold 14,392 shares of KLA stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.30, for a total value of $4,106,037.60. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 53,367 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,225,605.10. The trade was a 21.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 132,333 shares of company stock valued at $29,547,170 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of KLAC. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in KLA by 900.0% during the second quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,280 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $688,000 after acquiring an additional 2,052 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its stake in KLA by 781.5% in the second quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 359,277 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $108,397,000 after acquiring an additional 318,520 shares during the period. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. grew its holdings in shares of KLA by 600.7% during the second quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. now owns 31,561 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $9,522,000 after purchasing an additional 27,057 shares during the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of KLA during the second quarter valued at approximately $262,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co raised its position in shares of KLA by 900.0% during the 2nd quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 210 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the period. 86.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

KLAC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Argus increased their target price on KLA from $175.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of KLA in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of KLA in a report on Wednesday, June 17th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of KLA from $210.00 to $317.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on shares of KLA in a report on Tuesday. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $219.10.

KLA Stock Performance

NASDAQ:KLAC traded up $10.93 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $181.12. 7,364,426 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,595,566. The stock has a market capitalization of $236.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.41. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $223.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $181.22. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 3.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. KLA has a 52 week low of $83.22 and a 52 week high of $307.37.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $3.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.61 billion. KLA had a return on equity of 91.38% and a net margin of 35.57%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.94 EPS. KLA has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.060-1.260 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that KLA will post 5.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KLA Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 18th were paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 18th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. KLA’s payout ratio is presently 26.06%.

Key Headlines Impacting KLA

Here are the key news stories impacting KLA this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Results exceeded expectations: KLA reported fiscal Q4 adjusted earnings of $1.05 per share versus the $1.00 consensus, while revenue rose 15.2% year over year to approximately $3.66 billion. Strong demand from AI infrastructure, foundry and logic customers, and process-control applications supported the performance. KLA fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter results
• Positive Sentiment: AI investment remains a major growth catalyst: Management expects continued spending on AI infrastructure to drive semiconductor manufacturing demand and expand opportunities in inspection and process control. Fiscal Q1 2027 revenue guidance of $3.8 billion to $4.2 billion was broadly above Wall Street expectations, while the EPS range of $1.06 to $1.26 included an upside scenario. KLA forecasts upbeat quarter on AI investment
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support remains favorable: JPMorgan raised its price target to $238 and assigned an Overweight rating; Needham reiterated Buy with a $270 target, Cantor Fitzgerald maintained Overweight with a $325 target, and Citi reiterated Buy with a $290 target. Analysts cited the earnings beat and an improved outlook for wafer-fabrication equipment demand. KLA analyst outlook
• Neutral Sentiment: Semiconductor cycle backdrop is mixed: Wolfe Research analyst Chris Caso argued that a broad oversupply cycle is unlikely before 2028 because the industry lacks sufficient physical infrastructure, a view that supports longer-term chip-equipment demand. However, broader technology shares remain sensitive to interest rates, geopolitical tensions, and concerns about elevated valuations.
• Negative Sentiment: High expectations drove the initial decline: Investors viewed the guidance increase as less impressive than KLA’s premium valuation required, with analysts flagging potential growth constraints, competition, margin pressure, and uncertainty around customer capital spending. The stock’s rebound follows that selloff rather than a new earnings release. KLA earnings reaction
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling is a secondary caution: KLA’s CEO, CFO, and chief accounting officer collectively sold shares during the past six months, with no reported open-market purchases. These transactions may add to investor caution but are not necessarily company-specific signals.

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.