Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) Trading 1.3% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)’s share price rose 1.3% on Tuesday after Mizuho raised their price target on the stock from $195.00 to $220.00. Mizuho currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Applied Materials traded as high as $201.11 and last traded at $199.72. Approximately 1,374,008 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 7,094,749 shares. The stock had previously closed at $197.10.

AMAT has been the subject of several other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Applied Materials in a report on Thursday, July 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $225.00 price objective for the company. Rothschild & Co Redburn cut Applied Materials from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Redburn Atlantic lowered Applied Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $225.00 to $200.00 in a report on Monday, July 7th. B. Riley lowered their price objective on Applied Materials from $250.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $240.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 16th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Materials has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.74.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Applied Materials news, CAO Adam Sanders sold 562 shares of Applied Materials stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.60, for a total transaction of $100,373.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 5,300 shares in the company, valued at $946,580. The trade was a 9.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Materials

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Applied Materials during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,588,422,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Materials in the 1st quarter valued at $1,085,600,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new position in shares of Applied Materials during the 2nd quarter valued at $882,396,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Applied Materials by 2,401.0% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,066,817 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $445,056,000 after purchasing an additional 2,944,193 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Applied Materials by 18,402.1% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,824,304 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,647,430,000 after purchasing an additional 1,814,444 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Applied Materials Price Performance

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $173.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $165.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.46 and a quick ratio of 1.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $159.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.69.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.31 by $0.08. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 40.15% and a net margin of 24.06%. The company had revenue of $7.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.09 EPS. Applied Materials’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.92%. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is currently 22.38%.

About Applied Materials

Applied Materials, Inc engages in the provision of manufacturing equipment, services, and software to the semiconductor, display, and related industries. The company 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.