Bill Few Associates Inc. Purchases 2,026 Shares of Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

Bill Few Associates Inc. grew its position in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 11.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 19,391 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,026 shares during the period. Applied Materials accounts for about 1.0% of Bill Few Associates Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest position. Bill Few Associates Inc.’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $3,970,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Applied Materials by 1.0% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,920,984 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $7,125,265,000 after acquiring an additional 391,540 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Applied Materials by 2.0% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,026,363 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $3,836,807,000 after purchasing an additional 407,282 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 72.5% during the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 13,564,120 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,483,183,000 after purchasing an additional 5,700,349 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 13.7% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 8,936,363 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,635,992,000 after purchasing an additional 1,075,525 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Applied Materials during the 2nd quarter worth $1,604,002,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on AMAT shares. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Applied Materials from $260.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $170.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $205.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $240.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $290.00 price objective on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Twenty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $246.78.

Applied Materials Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMAT opened at $261.90 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $244.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $206.11. The stock has a market cap of $207.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.17, a PEG ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a current ratio of 2.61, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 12 month low of $123.74 and a 12 month high of $276.10.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 13th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $6.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.68 billion. Applied Materials had a net margin of 24.67% and a return on equity of 39.26%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.32 earnings per share. Applied Materials has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.980-2.380 EPS. 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 business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be issued a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is 21.20%.

Insider Transactions at Applied Materials

In other Applied Materials news, SVP Teri A. Little sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.24, for a total value of $952,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 84,351 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,095,782.24. The trade was a 4.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Adam Sanders sold 609 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.53, for a total transaction of $155,617.77. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 4,413 shares in the company, valued at $1,127,653.89. The trade was a 12.13% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 8,609 shares of company stock worth $2,044,898 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Applied Materials Company Profile

Applied Materials, Inc is a U.S.-based supplier of equipment, services and software used to manufacture semiconductor chips, flat panel displays and other advanced materials. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, the company designs and sells capital equipment and related technologies that enable production of integrated circuits, display panels and materials used across the electronics supply chain.

Applied Materials’ offerings include process equipment and factory software that support critical steps in device fabrication, such as deposition, etch, implantation, inspection and metrology, as well as systems for packaging and advanced heterogeneous integration.