Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-nine brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $149.08.

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 19th. Needham & Company LLC cut shares of Applied Materials from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 14th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Redburn Partners assumed coverage on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Tuesday, June 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Finally, Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $152.00 to $158.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 18th.

Insider Transactions at Applied Materials

In related news, CFO Brice Hill sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.04, for a total transaction of $150,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 106,023 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,907,690.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CFO Brice Hill sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.04, for a total transaction of $150,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 106,023 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,907,690.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Timothy M. Deane sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.30, for a total transaction of $1,029,750.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 100,759 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,834,210.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 18,500 shares of company stock valued at $2,599,790. 0.25% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich boosted its stake in Applied Materials by 98,769.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 811,480,246 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $117,291,355,000 after acquiring an additional 810,659,490 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in Applied Materials by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 71,782,658 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $10,375,465,000 after acquiring an additional 2,033,896 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Applied Materials by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,434,684 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $4,720,928,000 after acquiring an additional 301,010 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Applied Materials by 11.8% during the 2nd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 36,698,147 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $5,304,331,000 after acquiring an additional 3,865,159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its stake in Applied Materials by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,882,645 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $3,018,370,000 after acquiring an additional 160,472 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.24% of the company’s stock.

Applied Materials Stock Performance

Applied Materials stock opened at $153.99 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $144.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $129.55. The company has a market cap of $129.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 1.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 2.30 and a quick ratio of 1.59. Applied Materials has a fifty-two week low of $71.12 and a fifty-two week high of $154.54.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 17th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.16. Applied Materials had a net margin of 24.27% and a return on equity of 49.29%. The business had revenue of $6.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.15 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.94 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Applied Materials will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 24th will be issued a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 23rd. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is 16.89%.

About Applied Materials

Applied Materials, Inc engages in the provision of manufacturing equipment, services, and software to the semiconductor, display, and related industries. It operates through three segments: Semiconductor Systems, Applied Global Services, and Display and Adjacent Markets. The Semiconductor Systems segment develops, manufactures, and sells various manufacturing equipment that is used to fabricate semiconductor chips or integrated circuits.