Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) Earns Neutral Rating from Daiwa Capital Markets

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Daiwa Capital Markets in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They presently have a $170.00 target price on the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock, down from their prior target price of $185.00. Daiwa Capital Markets’ price objective suggests a potential upside of 6.36% from the stock’s current price.

AMAT has been the topic of several other research reports. Evercore ISI reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $209.00 target price on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of Applied Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $225.00 to $200.00 in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $195.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 15th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Summit Insights cut shares of Applied Materials from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Materials currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $193.88.

Applied Materials Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AMAT opened at $159.84 on Wednesday. Applied Materials has a fifty-two week low of $123.74 and a fifty-two week high of $215.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a current ratio of 2.46. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $183.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $166.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $128.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.05, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.70.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.12. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 41.31% and a net margin of 23.88%.The company had revenue of $7.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.21 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.12 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Materials has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.910-2.310 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Applied Materials will post 9.38 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Applied Materials

In related news, CAO Adam Sanders sold 562 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.60, for a total value of $100,373.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 5,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $946,580. This represents a 9.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AMAT. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Applied Materials during the second quarter worth approximately $1,604,002,000. Sanders Capital LLC purchased a new position in Applied Materials in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,409,320,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Materials during the first quarter worth approximately $1,085,600,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in Applied Materials by 72.5% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 13,564,120 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,483,183,000 after purchasing an additional 5,700,349 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Materials during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $882,396,000. 80.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.